Kingdom Hearts: Vision Mix
by OPFan37
Summary: Nox is a resident of Traverse Town. After a strange dream one night he obtains the Guardiarm and meets world travellers Clara and Oswald. The three of them set off to find the Door to the Light and rescue the worlds lost to darkness following after Sora, Donald and Goofy (in that order). But an even greater presence that threatens both light and darkness looms over them.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Light in the Night Sky

I've had dreams that were real, yet not.

I've had memories that don't belong to me, yet still tie to my life.

I've seen so much, felt so much, been through so much.

It began with a dream of me standing on stained glass. It was an image of people I didn't recognise next to me.

My name is Nox. I'm 15 with Caucasian skin and emerald green eyes and swept back black hair with a sweeping sharp strand across my forehead that has stubbornly persisted with me throughout my life. I wore a long sleeved and short waisted emerald green jacket with gold edges, the front being open and having black laces crisscrossing over my chest, showing the purple short sleeve with a gold zipper I wore underneath. Coupled with this I wore black shorts that fell below my knees that had pockets on the sides, and white rounded shoes with purple straps and gold buckles.

I looked around. It was nothing but blackness all around so I was forced to study the glass beneath my feet. Try as I might, I couldn't recognise any of the others depicted, which I founds strange.

"The darkness has begun to devour light." I froze as an unknown voice echoed around me.

"Who's there?" I called out into the endless abyss.

"A shine has died. But its hope gives way to a shimmer." The voice continued. "You must take that hope."

"Hope?" I echoed.

Suddenly, something fell onto the glass with a delicate clink. "Take hope within your heart." The voice persisted.

Carefully, I walked over and picked it up. It was what seemed to be glass in the shape of a diamond, and in the middle of it was what looked like a red symbol of a heart.

"Move forward." The voice said. "With your hope. Your light. Your fate." A door appeared in a flash of light.

Without anything to do, I pocketed the thing and walked towards the door, pushing it open, I had to squint as a light blinded me, but then I gasped as it was quickly swallowed in darkness, and countless yellow eyes shot towards me.

I sat up in my bed with a gasp, and looked around in fright.

It was my room. My house as it were. It was simple and wooden, the only thing that really differentiated it was the constant toys and models that had been disassembled or created. The most obvious being a small silver and light blue contraption sitting at my work desk with popsicles and cones stacked up in a holder attached to it.

I shook my head, trying to discern if my dream actually happened or not, before swinging around and standing up, but I stopped as I felt something in my pocket. Looking down I realised I was wearing my normal clothes and not my pajamas. I was too tired to change them from last night.

Reaching in, I was horribly surprised to pull out the same diamond from what I had assumed was my dream.

"How did...?" I stared at it in shock, it was supposed to have been just part of a dream! "This is weird...I should talk to Leon and Yuffie about this. Or...maybe Aerith."

Pocketing the gem once more, I unlocked my door and peered out. I was checking for Heartless.

 **Traverse Town**

This was Traverse Town. Or rather, the alleyway of Traverse Town. It was a world for those who had lost their own, and unfortunately, by now I was living here for ten years. Living in a town for a world was pretty shallow by this point, but I didn't really have much choice. It expanded, yes, but that was only because it was a world accepting more residents, which wasn't good at all.

I carefully began walking past the doors, with my destination in my sight. I was almost there when a shadow materialised on the floor, and I stopped.

"Of course one of you would show up." I muttered as I slipped into a battle stance, holding my right fist out and my left arm up in a block, as a creature with yellow eyes and black antenna pulled itself out of the ground. This was a Heartless, a creature of darkness that fed on hearts. Present in all worlds apparently, but they had also become more restless here in Traverse for some reason, which was never good.

Quickly, I punched the Shadow in the face, making it actually stagger back, before I kicked it as hard as I could, making it disintegrate into nothingness with a few yellow shards in its place. I then picked up the shards, which was Munny, and pocketed it. For whatever reason Heartless dropped it when they died, so Heartless Extermination was actually a good job around here.

Of course punching a Heartless with bare hands was never a smart move, but after Leon and Yuffie began training me a while back, I was proud to say I was more then capable of defending myself thanks to their kindness. Yuffie was a good combat coach, and she had helped with my strength and agility so that I could defend myself. Even though they practically cemented themselves as defenders of the town for as long as I can remember.

I reached the door and knocked, and I was answered almost instantly by a girl with short black hair and odd attire to say the least.

"Hey, Nox." Yuffie greeted me. "What brings you around?"

"Hello, Yuffie. I was wondering if I could ask you about something." She locked the door behind me as I entered. "Is Leon not in?"

"He's out Heartless hunting." She told me. "You need him?"

"I'm not sure." I took out the gem and presented it to her. "I was wondering if you could tell me anything about this."

"Oooh, shiny." She laughed, peering at it, then squinting. "Actually...I haven't seen anything like this before. Where'd you get it?"

"In a dream." She gave me an annoyed look. "Seriously. I had a dream about it, woke up, and it was in my pocket. You guys know a lot about weird stuff, so I thought you might have an idea on what it is?"

"Since when were we experts?" Yuffie shook her head. "Sorry, but it doesn't look familiar to me. Don't know if Leon or Aerith would, either."

"Right..." I nodded.

"Anyway, Nox. You'd better stay careful. Heartless attacks are becoming more and more frequent." Yuffie told me.

"Think I don't know? Just yesterday I was going to get more parts for a new invention-"

"Toy." Yuffie interupted with a smirk.

"INVENTION." I emphasised strongly in annoyance. "And a bunch of Soldiers jumped me."

"Don't name them." She frowned.

"Naming the Heartless makes them more easy to define, and easier to determine their threat level." I rebuffed.

"Sure. We know you like doing it." Yuffie sighed. "I still remember that time that fat one first showed up and you ran out to get a closer look."

"The Large Body." I recalled, making her give me an unamused look. "Well what would you call it?"

"A Heartless." She stated strongly.

I shook my head, then my eyes happened to glance at something hanging on the wall. It looked like armour, but it was only big enough to cover one shoulder, being bright red and violet in colour with a dark pink diamond on the shoulder.

"...Has Leon made any progress with it?" I asked, making Yuffie follow my line of sight.

"No. Still nothing." She said.

"Then really he should just give it back to me." I argued.

"Leon knows his stuff, and so does Merlin." She said. "Something is definitely special about that thing."

When I had arrived in Traverse Town, I was apparently clutching onto the armour tightly. It had been with me as long as I could remember until Leon wanted to study it, even bringing in Merlin, the resident magician and another good friend, to study it. They always said that 'something was very special about it' with nothing concrete.

I stared at the armour for a moment, when I felt an odd warmth from my pocket. Reaching in, I took out the gem, to see it was glowing. "Uhh...Yuffie?"

"What is i-woah." She stepped over and stared at it. "That's weird..."

"Hmmm..." I held the orb up to try and get a better look at it, but I gasped as it suddenly pulled itself out of my grip and flew into the armour resting on the wall with such force it fell off of its hooks and clattered onto the desk.

"Okay. Not normal." Yuffie stated.

"Yeah, no..." Carefully, I picked up the armour and examined it. "But really curious."

"Sooooo, what? Was the light your user registration?" Yuffie wondered aloud.

"Don't ask me." I replied. "There is a way to find out, though." I slipped the armour onto my right shoulder, and found that it actually fit perfectly.

"It fits you well." Yuffie observed. "TOO well. Wasn't it a little bit bigger?"

"Don't know, but I'll tell you, detective, it fits me and it doesn't feel heavy." I gave my arm a few experimental spins, and found that there was no resistance or weight whatsoever.

"Ninja." She corrected me, then frowning slightly. "Do you feel...different, at all?"

"...Not really." I replied. "Still...it must do...something." I tapped on it, trying to see if I could trigger anything.

"We'd better go find Leon. If nothing else, he knows stuff that's shiny, swingy or stabby." Yuffie said, picking up her large shuriken. "Stay behind me, okay?"

"I know." I assured her, still tapping at the armour.

We walked out and into the 1st District. It was a simple square with a large building in the middle that had a neon 'Accessory Shop' sign above it. The town was forever at night with stars twinkling above us in the sea of darkness as hazy streetlamps lit up the world we now lived on. We hadn't gotten far when shadows rose up out of the ground.

"Heartless here, in the 1st District!?" Yuffie gasped.

"That's definitely not normal." I thought aloud.

"Stay back, Nox." She warned.

"Don't worry, I can defend myself." I replied as I went into a battle stance.

But just as I thrust my right arm out, it was enveloped in a bright light, causing me to gasp before it faded away. My entire right arm was now covered in the armour, and were my fingers would be were five white straps.

"What the-!?" I stared at my now covered arm in fascination. From within the confines of the armour, I wiggled my fingers to find that the five straps copied the motion and did a waving motion.

"What happened!?" Yuffie gasped.

"I don't know!" I cried.

Suddenly, one of the shadows jumped forward, claws ready. Instinct took over and I threw my now covered fist forward to punch it, but as I did the five straps rapidly tripled in length, shooting forward and hitting three more of them, causing several of the Shadows to burst into nothingness as pink hearts floated out of them and into the sky.

"Oh my god!" I cried out in surprise as I clenched my fist, causing the whips to retract back to my weapon like tape measures.

Yuffie quickly disposed of the remaining shadows before running over to me. "That really just happened!? The armour turned into that?"

"Yeah!" I looked at every angle of my own arm in fascination as I wiggled the whips as if they were my own fingers. Then, in a flash of light, it reverted back to just being on my shoulder. "This is incredible!" I craned my neck to stare at the device attached to me.

"And not normal." Yuffie looked up. "When you defeated those Heartless, the hearts were released...but that would only happen if-"

"Is there some sort of trigger?" I wasn't listening to the rest of her mumblings as I thrust my arm forward, causing the gauntlet to reappear in a flash of light. "It reacts to that?" I waited a moment, then saw it revert back to normal. "And it changes back after prolonged inactivity. This is...wow! I can't believe I didn't know about this!"

"That's because it couldn't do that before."

Me and Yuffie looked at the new voice to see a blonde haired man chewing on a toothpick walking down.

"Oh, Cid!" Yuffie greeted him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. It'll take more then a few Heartless to bust down my doors." He replied confidently. "Just glad to see you both A-Okay. Especially you, Nox. Wouldn't want to lose a good customer."

"Thanks, Cid." I said, not hiding the displeasure in my voice. "Anyway, you were saying about this?" I flicked my arm and made the gauntlet reappear.

"THAT. It definitely didn't do that before." Cid mumbled. "And it didn't show any indication or capability of dong it before."

"Fancy words for you, Cid." I complimented, making him fix me with a traditional scowl.

"Cid, have you seen Leon around?" Yuffie stepped in.

"Leon? Yeah, I saw him, didn't you?" He asked. "Looked like he was headin' back to your flat. Takin' some kid with him."

"What!?" Both me and Yuffie gasped.

"Taking a kid? Why didn't you stop him?" I cried.

"Wouldn't call 'im a kid, Nox. Same age as you." He smirked. "And I don't get involved in his business since he doesn't mess with mine."

"Leon being Leon he must have a reason for it...hopefully." Yuffie sighed. "I'm gonna head back to the flat then."

"Nox, mind letting me take a look at this armour of yours for a sec?" Cid requested.

"Sure. I'm curious too." I admitted with a smile.

"Just be careful coming back, okay?" Yuffie said.

"Are you kidding? I have this thing now!" I summoned the gauntlet for emphasis.

"So you should know about great power and great responsibilities." She nodded. "I'm out, then." She suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke, sending both me and Cid into a coughing fit.

"I hate it when she does that." Cid grumbled, with me silently agreeing.

 _KHVM_

I sat in a chair in Cid's shop as I held my arm out with the gauntlet protecting it, Cid examining it. Turned out that f I just willed it to stay, stay it did, which only served to make this armour even more interesting. I was constantly glancing up at the ceiling, thinking about the cute little Moogles at work. I seriously loved those guys.

"I give. No idea how this thing works." Cid's cry got my attention. "This is magic crap. That's Merlin's job, not mine."

"Think I should take it to him, then?" I wondered as I stood up and observed it on my arm.

"Ha! You kiddin'? You'll be there listening to him for hours before he glances at it!" Cid laughed, making me frown in place of a non-present Merlin. "That's a weapon, ya hear me? And it seems to like you! Best way to learn it, is to use it."

"My own weapon..." I practically whispered, staring at it in fascination. I thought back to the dream, of taking hope...was this the hope? And then moving forward...

I gave it a few experimental swings. It still didn't feel heavy, but there was definitely a force behind it, and the whips acted as my fingers perfectly, plus the stretching and retracting part.

"I'll call it...the Guardiarm!" I declared.

"...Got a thing for names, haven't ya?" Cid shrugged. "Doesn't matter what it is, it can hit Heartless and hit 'em hard. Better use it right."

"I've got it." I nodded. "Thanks, Cid."

"One more thing." He stopped me. "Anything you bought off me that ya haven't turned into a stupid gizmo?"

"Invention." I corrected him. "And no."

"Good." He smirked. "Never stop, Nox."

I walked out into the district and glanced at the Guardiarm. "This is definitely mine. It feels like it should be. But what does it mean?"

As I was staring at it, I happened to see two figures I didn't recognise walking into the back streets. I couldn't get a clear look, but the colour of their clothes told me I didn't know them.

'Who were they? New arrivals?' I thought. 'Must've lost their worlds...I'll see if I can find them later. For now, I'd better go find Leon...but first I need to test this thing out!'

I walked out to the second district, which was the plaza filled with shops and resident homes, as well as the factory. Looking around it, unfortunately, wasn't long before more Shadows began appearing.

"Okay, let's try this." Starting with something basic, I threw a hooked punch at the closest shadow, the punch making a solid hit with the basic Heartless and causing it to burst into nothingness as a heart flew out of it and into the sky.

The other shadows sunk into the ground and crawled around like their namesake. Not feeling confident enough to let them come close, I backed up as they re-emerged in front of me before I shot the five whips forward, hitting three of them and missing four others. I quickly spun my own hand around the top of my head, causing the five elongated straps to whip around, taking out the remaining ones before I clenched my fist inside the weapon, making the whips retreat back.

'I think I'm getting the hang of this...' I thought as I stared at the weapon. 'Still, using the whips feels kind of unnatural...I should try it a bit more."

I cautiously walked down into the center, when suddenly what looked like Shadow Heartless clad in suits and wearing metal snapping helmets appeared. I had dubbed these ones Soldiers.

The Soldiers were much more confident, and jumped forward, catching me off guard. In a panic I shot the whips forward, knocking them back, before I threw them downward and whipped the Soldiers on the ground. As the rest of them approached I retracted the whips before shooting them out again, knocking them down like clattering bowling pins as they vanished.

"Yes!" I couldn't help but cheer at my own little victory. Of course, the execution of the attacks were so wonky and amateurish even I could see it, but the end result was very satisfying for me.

"Nox!" I stopped as I heard a familiar voice, and I looked to see a man wearing a jacket carrying a large sword over his shoulder running at me.

"Leon! There you are!" I gasped.

"That's my line!" He said, stopping in front of me. "Yuffie told me you were out with Cid, but he said you went out! What on earth do you think you-!" He stopped as he noticed the gauntlet on my arm. "Hey...is that it?"

"You mean the armour, right? This is what it is now." I held it out for emphasis.

"To think it could do something like this..." Leon mumbled as it faded away. "And from what Yuffie said...hey, take it off for a second."

"Take it off? Okay." I slipped the armour off quite easily, and put it in Leon's outstretched hand. He examined it for a moment, before it suddenly leapt out of his hand and clamped back on my shoulder.

"Woah!" I gasped in shock at the unexpected movement. "I...guess it likes me. Is it some sort of user code?"

"It's just like the key..." I heard Leon mumble. "Listen, Nox-"

Before he could continue, a bunch of Soldiers and Shadows suddenly surrounded us, making us both get battle ready.

"There are definitely a lot more then usual!" I stated.

"It's not normal at all." Leon agreed, slashing through two Shadows effortlessly. "This can only mean my suspicions were correct."

"Suspicions?" I echoed, prompting him.

"With the Heartless increase so dramatic, it can only mean that a boss Heartless is around here somewhere." Leon told me.

"A boss? You mean like, an incredibly powerful leader?" I guessed.

"Exactly." He nodded. "It means the whole town is in danger. Hopefully that kid can take care of it...Nox, you need to get home, quickly!"

It was then that I remembered. "Wait! Leon! I saw two new people go off to the back streets a little while ago! Do you think they could be in danger too!?"

"The back streets? Heartless around there are pretty rare." He admitted. "But with things like this...!"

"This is bad...I have to go help them!" I cried, pushing my way through the Shadows.

"Wait! Nox!" Leon called after me.

"Leon! Please take care of the enemies around here!" I yelled back at him. "I'll go to the back streets and Fountain Plaza!"

"Nox!" He yelled again before I pushed my way through the doors into the 1st District.

I hurried into the back streets, which was a long path alongside the waterways flowing through the town. I couldn't bare the thought of something bad happening to those two because I didn't stop them.

I ran up the waterways where more Shadow Heartless were waiting. I stretched the whips out and used them to slam all of them together into the wall, making them vanish as I rushed past them, out of the water and into the path towards the Fountain Plaza.

Traverse Town really likes its fountains, this plaza presenting a giant golden one in front of what was supposed to be a Town Hall, but was really just used as a workshop for Cid. I hurried out into the plaza and saw the two from earlier looking around.

"Hey! You two!" I called out to them as I ran over, and they turned towards me, allowing me to finally get a good look at them.

The first was a girl about my height. She was pale, but her hair was a bright neon pink, that hung over her shoulders. She had wide light pink eyes with a small nose and mouth that was a warm smile. She wore a no sleeve yellow hooded shirt with a dark pink music note on the back, with two white pockets on the front. She wore a sky neon blue straightened skirt along with white shoes with orange laces tied up into crosses, and knee high orange socks. Noticeably, at her waist was a large pouch that was the same colour as her skirt and circular in colour. It had two light green buttons tied to it with black string that almost served as eyes, as underneath it was a zipper that curved up into a smile.

The second was...I actually don't know, a rabbit, I think? I mean, he was covered in black fur, had black fluff for a tail and two long black bunny ears. And short, he only came up to about my stomach, though his ears reached the over my head. He wore a pair of blue shorts with two silver buttons on the front, and he seemed to wear a short sleeved light purple shirt that was zipped up with a silver zipper, that had pockets all over it, and even a dark purple backpack attached to the back of it. He didn't seem to wear any shoes, but he wore a pair of thick white armbands with black rings around them. Out of his backpack poked out what looked like a giant wrench from the curving 'C' end, which was dark blue in colour and seemed to have a compressed spring acting as its neck, with gear-like teeth on its handle and a red unlit light on the top of it.

"Oh, hello there!" The girl greeted me quite cheerfully. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...wait, I mean, we're not!" I gasped. "Listen, I don't know if you know the situation, and I don't mean to freak you out, but its really not safe at the moment. Heartless are everywhere right now. You need to get somewhere safe."

"Hey, buddy, no need to worry about us." The rabbit spoke in an authoritative voice. "We can handle ourselves perfectly fine. More importantly, YOU should get somewhere safe."

I simply stared at him for a moment. "Uh, okay...I came all this way, so don't you think I can handle myself?"

"Ohhhhh, cocky, are we?" The rabbit sneered. "Just 'cause you can beat a FEW Heartless doesn't mean you can survive against them. Me and Clara have been against them longer then you have."

"Hi, I'm Clara." The girl waved cheerfully. "And this happy guy is Oswald!"

"Oi! Don't introduce me!" The rabbit complained. "This isn't the time for greetings!"

Before I could try to discern anything, a large group of Soldiers appeared behind me!

"Heartless!" I gasped as I summoned the Guardiarm. "You two stay back, I'll protect you!"

"Stay back? And miss out on destroying Heartless? No way!" The girl, Clara cried as she jumped forward, holding her pouch out as she unzipped the mouth.

"Please! Saying you'll protect us. We'll outlast you if you want to play hero!" Oswald said as he pulled the giant wrench out of his bad and wielded it using his ears.

As the first Solder recklessly jumped forward, Oswald swung his wrench. The weapon was both far-reaching and heavy, and it smashed into the Soldier with such force it was destroyed instantly.

Clara straight up ran forward and held her pouch out, as suddenly the bags 'mouth' opened impossibly wide and chomped down on the nearest Soldier, destroying it. It then proceeded to grow a pair of bat wings and begin flying!

'Woah, these two are good!' I thought, before shaking my head. 'I've gotta help!' I ran forward and punched the Soldier in front of me, knocking it back into the other ones like a bowling ball.

The three of us together quickly dispatched the Soldiers, but as they all were defeated, a big, fat Heartless, a Large Body, suddenly appeared. Oswald swung at it, but despite the power it packed, the attack merely bounced off of its belly, before the big Heartless pounded its own stomach and then charged. We all dodged out of the way as it passed us, and I clumsily staggered before running up behind it and punching it in the back, making it fall on its face. As it picked itself up, Clara ran forward and bit its back using her pouch like a sock puppet, making the Heartless clumsily turn around and charge again, which was quite easy to do. Oswald swung his wrench like an axe straight down into its back, before I shot the five whips as my fingers forward. I was actually shocked as the five whips pierced straight through its back, making the Heartless freeze up in pain before it burst into shadows and Munny, before its heart floated up into the black sky.

"Wow..." I breathed in shock, turning to the two of them. "You two are...really good."

"Awwww, thanks!" Clara beamed. "You're really good yourself! Oh, hold on." She opened her pouch again, and it seemed to gain a vacuum like effect as it sucked up all the Munny left behind.

"That is cool!" I marvelled. "Is it magic?"

"Yep! A special keepsake from home." She patted it lightly.

"So...did your homeworld get destroyed?" I asked cautiously.

"Heyeyey, you're asking a lot of questions buddy, when I've got some!" Oswald then stared at the Guardiarm in fascination. "Like what the heck is this? I've never seen a weapon like this before, and it can release hearts from Heartless! Where'd you get it?"

"Just today." I shrugged. "Nobody seems to know what it is...but I've been using it well."

"Interesting..." Oswald mumbled, before beckoning Clara closer with his ear. he whispered to her, and I leaned in too. "This one seems special. We should get the Gummi Ship read-"

"A Gummi Ship!?" I gasped, making them both jump back.

"Hey! Don't listen in on other peoples conversations!" Oswald was literally hopping mad.

"Yes! We do have a Gummi Ship!" Clara spoke with a smile. "We're world travellers."

"Clara! Don't say that so casually! Did you already forget the rules of world travelling?" Oswald told her.

"A proper Gummi Ship...just like Cid said." I remember him recalling how he had brought most of my friends here in his own Gummi Ship before it fell into disrepair. A vehicle capable of travelling between worlds. "So...you've really been to other worlds?"

"Well, the thing is..." She scratched her cheek with a nervous smile, but then suddenly gasped. "Look out!"

She forcefully pushed me out of the way and dragged Intego with her as something crashed down where we previously stood, in front of the fountain.

What had attempted to crush us was a giant Heartless. It was mainly dark red in colour, but had golden edges. It had a needle shaped body with a star shaped hole in its chest, inside of which was a glowing white orb. Two black wires on the bottom ends, connecting it to two green and blue neon stars that served as the middle of the spiked black wheels that served as its legs. Its arms were the same black spindly limbs, connected to hands pulsing with purple and yellow neon rings around the wrists and fingers, in the middles of which were the same neon stars as on its wheels. Its head was diamond shaped with pulsing red white and black neon lights flashing around it, as the Heartless Emblem was where a face would be.

I later named this Heartless the Nightstar.

"Aw crud, we got a big one!" Oswald said.

The Nightstar's wheels spun as it charged at us much faster then the Large Body, and we only just got out of the way as it ran past before turning around to face us again. The Heartless then held its hands out and fired a dark purple star from each of its palms, one towards me and one towards Oswald and Clara. Oswald quickly swung his wrench at the star and batted it away whilst I could only jump out of the way of the one aimed at me, unfortunately, I landed right next to it, and its arm raised up, ready to crush me!

Before it could, Clara jumped up and bit its other arm with her pouch, distracting it long enough for me to gain some distance as it tossed her away, with her landing safely, thankfully. Oswald jumped impressively high and smashed it with his weapon, making the Nightstar flinch, but it retaliated by charging again, swinging its arms wildly, and the both of them just barely got out of the way.

I shot my whips forward and grabbed its arm in an attempt to stop it, but it quite easily pulled me, throwing me up onto one of the balconies, forcing me to painfully tuck and roll. I got back up as quickly as I could to see it firing more stars at Clara and Oswald, with the former using her pouch to suck up the stars as Oswald seemed to be shaking the wrench, causing the light on it to turn red. As it charged at them again, I waited for it to come close before I jumped off and grabbed onto its body. I then pulled myself up and punched it right in its face, making the Heartless stagger as I hit it again. Before I could strike a third time, the head suddenly detached from the body and launched itself as a spinning shuriken that was fast enough to hit both Clara and Oswald, as its body shook violently, tossing me off as I fell to the ground before its head reattached itself to the body.

Clara's pouch flew above them as she held her hand up, creating a green aura that washed over the two of them before they got back up seemingly unharmed, unlike me. Clara ran forward and recklessly used her pouch to bite the Heartless' main body as Oswald jumped towards its head. The sphere inside the Heartless' body seemed to glow, and Clara rightfully took that as a sign of danger as she released her grip and ran as the Heartless unleashed a blast of neon light that enveloped the radius around it, before Oswald swung his wrench into its body which caused a bolt of lightning to shoot through the Nightstar, as the light on the wrench returned to being dull, having used up its power on the one strike. The Heartless responded by detaching and spinning its head again.

"Not this time." I mumbled as self-motivation before I ran at it. I tried to punch the head, but it swerved out of the way and then smashed into me. Pain shot through my ribs, but I still managed to grab the head with my extended whips, holding it in place as I slammed it into the ground.

"Take...THIS!" Using all the strength I could muster, I smashed my gauntlet down onto the Heartless' head like a hammer, crushing it and causing a gigantic crack to spread across the star.

The neon lights on the Heartless suddenly faded into black, and its body went limp as a heart burst out of its body and flew away before it disintegrated. And as I stared down at the head, the Guardiarm flashed for a moment, and a faint light shimmered in the head before it too faded away, leaving behind the source of the shine.

"This is..." My weapon vanished and I picked up the orb. "Just like the one I got from my dream..." Only instead of a heart, it had a neon yellow star inside it with shadows wrapping around it.

"That was AMAZING!" Clara cheered as I pocketed the small orb. "We destroyed that thing! Together! We were so cool!"

"I'll admit...you were pretty capable there." Oswald admitted. "Really capable..."

"Thank you." I said. "You really helped me. And, everyone else who lives here too."

"No need to thank us. After all, you helped." She nodded, before gasping. "Hey, you're hurt!"

I looked down at myself. I did indeed have a lot of scraps and bruises, and a dull pain ebbing at me.

"Hold on. I have just the thing!" She smiled gleefully as she reached into her bag and pulled out a blue vial with a green star floating in it. "Potion'll fix you up good!" She tossed it into the air and it shattered before the same green sparkles rained down on me, and I suddenly felt a lot better.

"So that's how a Potion works? Thanks." I thanked her.

"Anytime." Her smile seemed to be ever present, but retained its kindness. "You were quite strong. That weapon of yours definitely is special."

"I believe so, yeah." I told her.

"It certainly is..." Oswald had his arms folded, tapping his fingers. "Say, uh, we never got your name."

"Oh! Sorry, it's Nox." I said.

"That's a nice name." Clara nodded.

"Nox, then. I, well we, might have a proposition for you." Oswald said.

"A proposition?" I echoed.

"Yeah." He nodded. "As you can probably guess, we came here in a Gummi Ship. I'm the captain, and Clara is someone I picked up when her world got destroyed, short story is we stuck together for a bit and she also proved to be capable at handling herself. So, together, we've been searching all the other worlds."

"Searching for what?" I asked.

"Something important." Clara said. "Have you heard of the Door to the Light?"

"Can't say I have." I shook my head.

"The Door to the Light is the key to returning all worlds lost to the darkness." Oswald said. "When it is opened, light floods in, and casts the shadows away that have enveloped the lost worlds, freeing and restoring them."

"Wait, the worlds lost to darkness...can come back?" I echoed in shock.

"Yes." Clara nodded. "That's why we've been looking! But it doesn't seem to be here either. Still! Killing a bunch of Heartless is always fun!"...She said that a bit too enthusiastically.

"The Door to the Light..." I pondered it, but nothing came to mind. "Hey, maybe my friends know something about it. I can take you to them if you'd like."

"Really?" Clara smiled. "Thank you so much."

"Well...I suppose it would be rude to refuse." Oswald gave in. "Besides...I suppose I need to talk with your friends too."

We walked back to the First District, where I conveniently saw everybody gathered together.

"Hey! Guys!" I waved over to them.

"Nox! There you are!" Yuffie cried. "Where did you run off to!? I was looking all over for you!"

"Sorry for worrying you, Yuffie. But I'm fine. They helped." I gestured to the pair behind me.

"Lovely to meet you! I'm Clara!" She cheered.

"Nice to meetcha. Name's Oswald." He waved.

"Who are they? New residents?" Yuffie asked.

"Not exactly." I shrugged.

"Nox." Leon spoke, making me look at him.

"Uh, is this about running off?" I asked.

"Something like that." Leon said. "Come here. I want to introduce you to someone."

"Huh? Who?" I walked over to him, and I was standing face to face with three people.

The first was a boy about my age. He had spiky brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a silver crown pendant with a white open jacket and matching gloves over a red shirt and shorts combo, and the biggest yellow shoes I'd ever seen. Standing behind him was a duck with no pants and a blue jacket with a matching hat with an unnecessary zip, and the third was...I honestly don't know. A dog, maybe? But he wore a green jumper and yellow trousers with a black jacket.

"Is this the guy you were telling me about, Leon?" The guy asked.

"Yeah. Sora, meet Nox. Nox, Sora." He introduced us.

"Uh, Pleased to meet you." I offered my hand.

"Nice to meet you too." He smiled as he shook it.

And just for a moment, my armour piece flashed, and a beam of white light appeared in Sora's hand, turning into a giant key.

"What the-?" We both gasped.

"That's a giveaway." Oswald chimed in.

"Huh, so it is something like that." Leon said.

"Leon, what is this?" I asked him.

It was at this moment that a women with braided brown hair in a pink dress stepped forward. This was Aerith.

"It seems that that armour and the Keyblade are connected in some way." She said.

"Though it's clear that thing on your shoulder isn't a Keyblade." Leon stated. "But the fact that it releases hearts is definitely an indication of something."

"The Keyblade, huh?" I remembered Leon talking about it at times. "I guess I'm glad I got to meet you then, keyblade wielder."

"Thanks." Sora grinned, holding the key out. "You're pretty special as well it seems, so I'm glad I can meet you!"

"Nox, do you remember that dream you had last night?" Aerith asked.

"Yeah...there was a voice. It spoke about darkness devouring light...and I had to take hope." I recalled.

"It must be a sign of some sort." She nodded. "Nox...you should go with them."

"R-Really?" I gasped.

"Well, you should listen to your dreams...and it can't be a coincidence." Yuffie theorised.

"Absolutely not!" The duck suddenly yelled in a series of quacks.

"Huh!? Why not!?" Sora said.

"Gawrsh, Donald, you shouldn't really mess with destiny like that." The dog said.

"We were only told to bring the key." Donald said. "We can't just bring along anybody, Goofy."

"Oh c'mon! he seems nice." Sora persisted.

'Am I being compared to extra baggage right now?' I thought.

"It's alright!" Suddenly, Clara hugged me from behind, catching me off guard as her chest pressed into my back. "Nox is coming along with us!"

"What!?" Everybody yelled, including me.

"Yeah! We're travellers too!" She beamed. "We're looking for the Door to the Light, so, that's gotta link to your destiny, right?"

"Clara, you completely stole my thunder!" Oswald ranted, before huffing. "That was my proposition. If your Guardiarm has properties similar to a Keyblade, it could be essential in finding the Door to the Light. I want you to come aboard my ship, and help us look across the worlds!"

"So that settles it right? Right?" Clara beamed.

"I..." Leon looked at me, and I could only smile nervously. "...Guess that works out?"

"See? It works out." Donald defended himself.

"You'll really take me along?" I asked them.

"Just said, didn't we?" Clara laughed.

"The Door to the Light will save all worlds?" I asked.

"Yep." Oswald nodded. "It'll save yours too, if you ended up here."

Going out from the tiny town I'd known practically my whole life...to explore other, fascinating worlds, meet new people, discover and learn so much more...and even return the world I came from, which I couldn't remember, to finally learn so much more...

"...Thank you!" I smiled.

 _KHVM_

I looked around my room. This was a...weird feeling. I was leaving this behind now. Everything had happened so quickly, now that it had slowed down, I was honestly having trouble processing it!

But still...this definitely wasn't natural. I summoned the Guardiarm and stared at it. It all began with this, on this day...something was up. Traverse Town was the only place I had ever known, and now I was leaving it behind...still, was that a good thing? It was for a noble cause after all...and it was for the sake of everyone in Traverse Town...

I pulled the orb I had gotten from the Heartless out of my pocket and stared at it. Then, a soft light shined from the palm of the Guardiarm, and the orb seemed to float above it. I was half expecting it to be absorbed like the one I got from my dream...but it just stayed there, suspended, until the weapon vanished and it dropped into my hands.

'Too many questions and no answers.' I sighed. That bothered me.

Taking one last look around, I picked up my notebook and several pens, then carried my dessert machine, I was taking it with me no matter what! It was my prized possession!

I walked out of my house and into the 1st District, where I saw Clara and Oswald talking with Leon and the gang.

"Sorry we couldn't be more help." I heard Leon say as I walked over.

"No need to worry!" Clara beamed. "We'll definitely find the Door to the Light, and we'll bring all the worlds back!"

"If that's your plan, then I'm rooting for ya." Cid nodded.

"Hey." I said as I walked over.

"Hellooooo, Nox!" Clara waved. "Oh! What's that?"

"I'm taking it with me." I held it out. "It's my dessert machine"

"Dessert machine?" Oswald eyed it. "...Did you make this?"

"Yeah." I admitted.

"...Heh." He seemed to smile. "I'll take it to the ship." He picked it up with his ears and carried it off.

"I'll go with him. You guys say you're goodbyes." Clara smiled as she headed off.

"Jeez, Nox. This is going over my head." Cid admitted. "Heading off on a Gummi Ship, gettin' your own destiny and that...still, guess I gotta root for a good customer, huh?"

"Thanks, Cid." I smiled, knowing it was his own way of wishing me well.

"We'll let everyone know you're going to help them." Yuffie assured me. "Just stay safe, alright?"

"Promise." I nodded.

"Hey..." Leon said. "You'd better come back and visit before you find that Door, okay? Don't want to lose you. But still...good luck."

"Thanks Leon." I mustered a smile. This was getting kinda sad...

"Nox..." Aerith spoke. "Do you know why Traverse Town is always night?"

"Uhhh..." I certainly didn't expect that. "No, why?"

She pointed up, and I looked up to see the blanketed night sky filled with stars.

"So that we who have lost our worlds, can still look up and see the lights of those who remain, who still have hope, and light." She said. "So, when you leave...one of those stars will be us. As long as you can see the stars, you'll have us with you."

"Aerith..." I almost teared up, and I had to rub my eyes. "I'll remember you all in the stars."

I looked to the gate where the ship was supposed to be. I hadn't seen it yet, and I was a bit giddy.

"I'm off." I told myself more then them. "See you again."

"See you again, Nox." Leon nodded as we shook hands. "Now get going!"

"Right!" I cried as I turned and ran.

I pushed the door open, and was surprised to see two Gummi Ships. One was red and yellow, whilst the other was purple and blue with silver wings and blue thrusters.

"Sir Oswald, you really haven't seen the King?" I overheard Goofy talking to Oswald.

"Sorry, not since I left." Oswald said, before smirking. "Seriously, he's still doing stuff like this? I thought he'd know better now that he's a proper king and all."

"So then, what are you doing, Sir Oswald?" Donald asked.

"This mission's personal. My own." Oswald said with a hand on his chest. "You know I can take care of myself, so you two look after this new Keyblade wielder, 'kay?"

"You can count on us, Sir Oswald!" Donald and Goofy saluted.

"What was that about?" I asked as I walked over.

"Aw, nothing. They're just too noble for their own good." Oswald snickered, before jabbing his thumb at the purple ship. "Anyway, what do you think of my ship? Pretty impressive, right?"

"Yeah! It's a real Gummi Ship!" I marvelled.

"And you're part of the crew now." Oswald said as the hatch opened. "Ready to get going?"

"...I am. Let's go!" I cheered.

And that was how our adventure began.

 **Info**

 **Nox: The main protagonist of Kingdom Hearts: Vision Mix. He wields the mysterious Guardiarm which can use the power of both Light and Darkness through Shards. After having a strange dream, he journeys with Clara and Oswald to find the Door to the Light.**

 **Clara: An always optimistic and smiling young woman looking for the Door to the Light. The Familiar she uses can attack with her input, but she mostly uses it to store her healing and support Items. She is the Support of the team.**

 **Oswald: The captain of the ship who is an eccentric inventor with a love for heroics and gadgets. He acts tough, but has a big heart. His Wrench is big and heavy, but it does huge damage and his Skills all help everybody in the team. He's both the brawn and the brains.**

 **Heart Shard: An orb that awakened the Guardiarm. It is made from Nox's heart.**

 **Nightstar Shard: An orb obtained from the Nightstar. It does nothing on its own, but can be used in Synthesis...**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Two Sides

My eyes couldn't help but widen in amazement at the sight through the window of the Gummi Ship. Space and stars as far as the eye could see with galaxies in the distance, but it didn't have the darkness of space, because it was illuminated by colours like an aurora.

"Enjoying the view?" I turned to Clara and her smile.

"Yeah, I didn't realise it was so beautiful." I admitted.

"Soak it in." Oswald smiled as he piloted the ship. "Not many people get to see the space inbetween worlds ya know."

"I can't wait to see what's out here." I thought aloud.

"Certainly is exciting, ain't it?" Oswald asked.

"So, uh, awkward question, but...what are you two...like?" I asked.

"Whaddya mean? Oswald asked.

"Well...why are you after the Door of Light?" I questioned.

"Simple. We're gonna bring all the worlds back." Clara replied, smiling.

"But...why you two?"

"It's a mission I gave myself." Oswald explained. "I've studied all manner of light and darkness in the past, and when worlds began to vanish more rapidly, I decided to find the Door to Light to restore them. Actually stopping the worlds destruction is...another ones job." He seemed to mumble more when he said that last part.

"And I'm travelling with him because he saved me after my world was destroyed. I wanna help as much as I can, too!" Clara beamed.

"And...how did you get this Gummi Ship?" I wondered aloud.

"Get it? Ha!" Oswald turned to me with a confident smile. "I made it!"

"You built this whole Gummi Ship?" I gasped.

"All by myself." He boasted. "Always had a knack for making things, me. Let me tell you, working with both magic and technology really is amazing."

"Woah...that's really incredible, Oswald!" I praised him.

"O-Oh! Thanks, heh-heh." He chuckled. "Glad to see someone appreciates my skills."

"I do!" Clara waved her hand.

"I wish I could use magic and incorporate it into my things too." I said.

"So you ARE the techno type! Yeah-heh!" Oswald cheered. "I guessed from that machine you brought on board."

"Uh-huh. I've always liked making things, and learning about how everything works." I nodded. "But, because I've only known Traverse Town, not even my original world, my knowledge is very limited..."

I stared out the window again. "So, with this opportunity, I want to learn as much about everything as I can!"

"That's a wonderful ambition." Clara clapped.

"I can definitely get behind a dream like that." Oswald said, then he looked forward. "Oh! Look lively you two, we're coming up on a new world."

"Really!?" I pressed my face up against the glass window to see something slowly closing in on us.

It appeared to be a sphere, only it was dark pink with hedges in the shapes of hearts covering it, along with what looked like clocks sticking out of it.

"That's a world? It looks kind of...small." I stated.

"That's not the world itself." Oswald said. "It's a representation of itself to outside travelers. Think of it like a little preview image painted onto the front gates."

"Oh...so, how do we land?" I went on.

"Like...this!" He suddenly shot forward full force!

"Woahwoahwoah you're gonna crash!" I cried as we barrelled straight at the sphere.

But instead of crashing into it, we instead went THROUGH it in a burst of colourful lights forming into a tunnelling portal, before we came out into darkness.

"Here we go." Oswald spoke casually.

"Could you give me some warning next time!?" I panted, clutching my chest.

"Sorry about that. But we've arrived." He stared out the window. "Hmmm...funny, don't see anythin'."

"Ooooh! It's below us!" Clara pointed out the window. We looked down to see some kind of small tunnel leading to an odd room.

"It's a bit of a drop." I stated.

"Can't go any lower though, too small for the ship." Oswald said.

"Then how do we-ah!" I accidentally leaned against the glass as the rabbit opened the sphere for us and fell out.

"Nox!" Both of them gasped.

I thought I was gonna fall and land painfully...but instead...

"I'm...floating?" I was descending very slowly, watching as clocks and furniture flew up past me, along with a mirror with a weird reversed reflection.

"Guess it's safe then!" Clara determined as she also jumped out, followed by Oswald, all three of us then descended slowly and landed in the room.

 **Wonderland**

"This place is...weird." Was all I could say, looking around the wonky room.

"I think it's pretty wonderful." Clara praised.

"Do you really think the Door to the Light could be here?" I asked.

"Never sure." Oswald shrugged. "But they say the Door appears to those with true Light. Worlds themselves have their own lights, so theoretically, the Door could be anywhere there is light. That's why we're searching every world as thoroughly as possible."

"Hmmm, well, it seems from here there's only one way we can go." I pointed to the single curving corridor.

We walked down it and through a series of doors before coming into a pink coloured room of some kind with a bed, table that had two drinks on top of it, and what seemed to be a small door.

"Okayyyy..." I was honestly having difficulty trying to interpret what all of this was about. Did people actually live in this 'world'?

"Dead end looks like it. Save for that door." Oswald pointed at the tiny one.

I knelt down to it. "There's no way we could fit through there."

"Of course not, you're far too big." The doorknob said...wait...

"The doorknob spoke!" All three of us gasped.

"Aahhhh! My word, so many noisy people coming through today!" The doorknob groaned. "Honestly, why do I even bother trying to sleep?"

"Very sorry for disturbing you, sir." Clara spoke to it.

"Oh, well...quite alright my dear." He sniffed. "It's just I'm so groggy..."

"Do you know a way we can come through here?" Clara asked sweetly. "If we do, we'll leave you to sleep peacefully."

"That would be lovely." The doorknob admitted. "In that case, try the blue bottle on the table?"

Our trio looked down at the blue and red bottles on the table. "These ones? So we have to drink them?" Clara wondered aloud.

"Be careful. We still don't know how this world works. Who knows what just a drink will do." Oswald warned.

"Oh, it'll be fine." Clara waved it off with a smile as she rank from it. "Mmm, it's sweet!"

She handed the bottle to me and I peered in. It looked like milk, but more importantly, it looked full, despite Clara just drinking from it.

"Welp, only one way to find out." I drank a mouthful, and it actually was sweet, like chocolate. "That really is nice!"

"Okay, okay, quit taunting me and let me taste." Oswald gave in as I handed him the bottle and he drank from it. "Aaah, that's nice." He put it back on the table. "So, what happens noooooow!?"

Suddenly, the three of us shrank down to the size of mice!

"Wow, this must be magic, or chemistry, or something." I figured, as we were now the same size as the door.

"In a drink? There are SOME boundaries to these things." Oswald said that, but he looked just as thoughtful.

"Everything looks different when your smaller." I noted, when suddenly, several Shadows and Soldiers appeared in front of us! "Heartless!"

"Looks like some things remain the same." Oswald sighed as we readied our weapons.

To my own shock I found that Shadows and Soldiers weren't exactly difficult for me to handle. Just a few days ago three Shadows would be a real danger to me tied with one Soldier, but with the Guardiarm I blew through all of them. They were quickly reduced to nothing but orbs and Munny.

"It's a shame they showed up when we were shrunk." Clara moaned as her Familiar sucked up all the Munny. "If we were normal size, we could have squashed them like ants."...She was still smiling as she said that.

"Actually, that was smart of them." I spoke. "They only showed up when we were more viable targets. It shows that they're not completely unintelligent."

"More like instinctual." Oswald said. "Heartless only work on their own primal urges for hearts. Nothin' else matters to 'em."

"They drop a lot of stuff as well." I noted, when my eye caught something, and I picked it up.

'It's another gem, like the one the Nightstar dropped.' Except it was much smaller, and all I could see inside it was a little dark purple swirl. 'These things...they're becoming more prominent...but the Heartless in Traverse Town never dropped them before...maybe...'

"Oi, Nox!" Oswald called to me. "C'mon! Door's gonna let us through!" I quickly pocketed the gem and followed after them.

"Now I can finally get some sleep..." The door hoped aloud as it opened and we walked through, it closing behind us.

What we walked into was...not what I expected. I honestly didn't know what I should have expected in this place, but not some kind of purple and green forest with arrow signs pointing in every direction imaginable.

"Sssssssooooooo which way?" I asked.

"'Which way' is not the way." A voice suddenly echoed out. "All ways here are wrong ways. Mostly because they're others ways."

"Hey! Who's talkin'!?" Oswald yelled out. "Show yourself, coward!"

Then, something appeared on the branches of one of the trees. It appeared to be a pink striped tail, and it swung itself around to reveal the rest of the striped body and a big, grinning face.

"Yourself is myself, though this self is a strange self indeed." The cat grinned.

"You're a...cat?" I thought aloud.

"A Cheshire Cat." He corrected me. "I must say, it seems troublesome trios travel in threes. You're the second pair of thirds here."

"Do you mean, three others are here? You mean Sora, Donald and Goofy?" I guessed.

"Who can say? Well, I can say. But I won't say if you say that I should say where they stay." He almost giggled in his speech. "Why don't you look around? Plenty of arrows to direct and misdirect you, you'll find your misguided misdirection eventually." He then seemed to fade away into nothingness.

"That was...weird." Oswald mumbled.

"Well, we heard the crazy cat. Sora's group is here somewhere. All we can do is look around." I nodded.

"That's the spirit!" Clara agreed.

We followed one path and seemed to come to a cottage of some kind with a carrot patch growing beside it.

"What do you know? Somebody actually lives here." I commented.

"What a cute little cottage." Clara complimented.

"C'mon, let's check it out." Oswald said.

I knocked on the pink door. "Hello? Anybody in?" When no response came, I opened the door, and found that nearly every object was rabbit themed with two pointed ears or just bunny pictures.

"A bunch of rabbit fanatic stuff...well, this is awkward for me." Oswald admitted.

"Even cuter." Clara practically squealed.

We walked upstairs into the bedroom, which was quite small, it was easy to look around in.

"Doesn't seem to be anything here." I noted.

"'Cept for a chest." Oswald kicked a red box. "Could always take what's in it."

"Isn't that stealing?" I clarified.

"Depends on the contents." He told me. "Things from other worlds have been misplaced all over the multiverse from multiple destructions alongside the pathways between them being forced open by the Heartless. You think the Potions and Ethers Clara has been collecting really belong in worlds like this? If anythin', we're doin' good by acting as cleaners, preventin' anybody else from getting their hands on stuff like this."

"...You actually make a very valid point...but I can't help but think it's an excuse of some kind." I rationalised.

He rolled his eyes and opened the box, reaching inside and pulling out a blue vial with two green stars in it. "Hi-Potion. See? Cleaning. Okay, Clara, put this in your bag and-hey!"

I turned to Clara to see her swallowing something with her innocent smile. "What?"

"What do you think you're doing just eating anything you find? Especially in a world like this, where a drink shrank us down?" Oswald complained.

"There's a little box of cakes here." She pointed to a small box that had little square cakes reading 'Eat Me' inside them. "They're saying I can."

"Doesn't mean you should!" Oswald argued.

"There's still plenty left if you-ow!" Suddenly, Clara had a massive spontaneous growth spurt that made her hit her head on the ceiling of the house. "That's weird-ah!" She grew again, forcing her into a sitting position in the now cramped room.

"Uh, Oswald? We should leave." I said.

"Way ahead of ya!" He cried as he sprinted out the door.

I followed him out the door of the house just before Clara's legs burst through, her arms ripping out of the roof as the front windows flew open to reveal her face.

"Ummm, I think I'm stuck." She said.

"No kidding." I said, when suddenly some Soldiers appeared behind us! "And now there's this!"

"We gotta protect Clara!" Oswald said as he pulled out his Wrench as I summoned the Guardiarm.

The Soldiers were easy to beat, and didn't come close to the house. But then some new Heartless FLEW in. They were little red ones that were triangle shaped wearing yellow curling wizard hats. I came up with this nice little naming scheme where I gave them a colour then a music theme...it's clever! Anyway, I named this one Red Nocturne.

The little guys all gathered around and started shooting fireballs at the hay roof, causing it to be set alight.

"Ah! Ouch! No fair!" Clara cried as she tried to wave the fire away.

"Hold on!" I stretched my whips out and grabbed one of them before slamming it into the ground.

"I gotcha covered!" Oswald declared. "Thunder!" Suddenly a bolt of lightning fell from nowhere and struck one of the Red Nocturne's before sparking out and zapping the rest of them.

"Phew, that was close." Clara breathed in relief.

I quickly punched the last one and found it dropped another gem. This one was small like the dark ones, except it had a tiny little ember inside of it.

'They're different...I'm beginning to get a collection.' I thought as I pocketed it.

"You're lucky I knew how to do somethin' like that." Oswald told her.

"So you really can use Magic!" I pointed, rather dumbly.

"Told you, didn't I?" He boasted again. "I may not know all of it, but the ones I do, I'm quite proficient in."

"I helped too!" Clara waved, stuck inside the house.

"You okay, Clara?" I asked.

"Oh yes! Thank you, you two! Shame I missed out on the fun, though." She replied.

"Now how we gonna get you back to normal?" Oswald thought aloud.

"Hmmmm..." I pondered for a moment. "If eating something sweet made her grow, maybe eating something else will have the opposite effect." I walked over to the carrot garden and plucked one out. "Try this."

I placed it in her large hand and she ate it. After a second she quickly shrank down back into the house, and walked out at her normal size. Well, we were still shrunk, but you get what I mean.

"That's better." She breathed a sigh of relief as I did my best to place the door back in place.

"Alright, new rule, we don't eat anything else whilst we're here." Oswald put his foot down.

"Okay..." Clara looked a bit sheepish, but still managed to retain a small smile.

"Let's try one of the other ways." I said, walking back the way we came.

Another pathway seemed to lead into some kind of hedge maze. It was difficult to navigate, and the fact that Shadows, Soldiers and Red Nocturne's kept appearing didn't help in the slightest. But whilst we were beating them, I picked up on something.

'It seems that the Heartless only drop these when I defeat them.' I thought, looking at the five red orbs and eight black orbs I had accumulated alongside the big one I got from the Nightstar. 'So they must be tied to the Guardiarm somehow...'

I held the five red ones in my right hand and summoned the Guardiarm. As soon as it appeared, the five orbs started floating in its palm, then they began to emit a light, a soft, rhythmic pulse.

"Hey, Nox! What's that?" Clara looked over my shoulder.

"They're orbs I've been picking up...well, more like, Shards I guess." I figured.

"They came from the Heartless? Looks new to me." Oswald said.

"Sure it's okay to pick up Heartless droppings?" Clara said.

"We've been taking their Munny." I argued, before scrunching my eyes up. "I think I've seen this light before."

"Where?" Oswald asked.

I thought for a moment. "I remember! This light is the same I saw when I watched the Moogles work. It came from their furnace...it's the light of Synthesis!"

"Synthesis?" Clara echoed in awe. "The Guardiarm can use Synthesis? Can it work on my Items?" Her pouch spat up two Potions, but they just bounced off of my hand, and the actual tongue of the pouch caught them before they could shatter on the ground.

"Seems like it only works on these." I said. "But how does it work?"

"Sorry, no clue." Oswald shrugged.

"Have you tried concentrating?" Clara asked.

"Concentrating?" I repeated.

"Yeah, like focusing. Focusing is really important you know, in anything, really!"

"Focusing...focus..." I stared at the Shards intently, focusing on them, willing them to do...something.

Then, the five of them began spinning around each other, and they all joined together into a bigger diamond shape that the Guardiarm absorbed into itself.

"It's like with the first one." I remembered, staring at my palm. "Wonder what it does?" I held out my palm and focused.

Unexpectedly, I shot out a fireball that singed the hedge wall!

"Woah! You just used Fire!" Clara gasped.

"No way! I can use Magic!?" I focused and shot out another fireball that traveled a fair distance down the path before fizzling out. "This is so cool!" I tried firing a third one, but found nothing came. "Huh?"

"Seems like you're out of MP." Clara said.

"MP?" I echoed.

"What we use to gauge how much Magic ya got in the tank." Oswald elaborated. Focusing for a moment, I did feel a bit, empty...like, only a quarter full if I had to make an estimation.

"Hold on." Clara's pouch spat out a small blue cube that it tossed up. The cube burst into a soft blue light that washed over me, and I felt 'full' again. "Ether fills you back up."

"I can use Magic..." I stared at the Guardiarm in fascination, it really was amazing. "Shame I can only do it twice."

"Once you get used to Magic, your MP is sure to increase." Clara reassured me. "I didn't imagine your weapon could do something like this, but, be careful about using it, alright?"

"I will. Don't worry." I assured her.

We managed to find our way out of the hedge maze and back to the arrow trees. When we came back, a familiar voice rang out.

"Did you enjoy not finding not your way?" The Cheshire Cat reappeared on a tree branch balancing on its own head, before putting it back on its shoulders.

"More riddles, huh?" I thought aloud.

"No riddles from me, but riddle me this: How can you find a way that is your own when the way you walk is defined by others?"

"...He's makin' my head hurt." Oswald admitted.

"What do you mean when you say our way is defined by others?" I asked.

"Why, this worlds itself is twisted and turned by others." The cat gestured with its legs as if they were arms. "Made of dreams and illusions and hysterical fits."

"Sounds pretty cool." Clara stated simply.

"This world is defined by others?" I simplified it.

"Correct. And of course, the way you walk is also paved by others, out of sight." The cat giggled. "But your goal is always the same, in front of your spying eyes. Those who walk in light skip towards the shine, those in shadows charge into the dark."

"Wait, now you're taling about light and darkness?" Oswald perked up. "Just who are you, cat?"

"Just a Cheshire Cat, who are you?" It giggled. "But I suppose I can show you a way. A different way, made of different fits and illusions and dreams. I'll even show you a shortcut." He pulled down on the branch of the tree, and suddenly a door opened up in the tree before it vanished.

"Can we trust a cat?" Clara asked me.

"Why you asking me?"

"Because you where the only one who seemed to understand him." Oswald said.

"I didn't understand. I interpreted." I said. "But, we've looked everywhere else, so might as well." And so we walked into the tree, and what we found was the most shocking thing yet.

The sky was a murky black and dark yellow. Cracked stone paths were under out feet, and almost all around us were black, thorned vines that snaked and snared and strangled the almost dying bushes, as random blood red roses sprouted everywhere. It led up to a towering, dark red castle with a large, almost black red heart on the front of it.

"What...is this?" Clara asked in disbelief. "It looks and feels completely different from the rest of this place!"

"He said that this is a part of the world made from different...whatever they were." I said. "Guess this is the darker half."

"Why would someone do this?" Clara asked, shaking her head, her smile leaving her face. "Turn a wonderful mystical world into...this?"

"Well...when you see something like this...sometimes a mind wants to twist it, and try to see what it would look like if...it was more sinister, more disturbing. That's just my creative thought at least." I said.

"A dark half, huh?" Oswald said. "I doubt the Door to Light would be here...but I don't think we can overlook this."

"We should explore at least. There are probably Heartless around." Clara agreed.

"Right." I nodded as we began walking forward.

We did indeed run into a few Soldiers, Red Nocturne's and even two Large Bodies as we explored. The further we went in though, the scenery remained the same; broken stone, black thorns and bloody roses.

Eventually, we came into a wide open area, like the ruins of a coliseum.

"Where's this?" I thought aloud.

"Seems fancy." Clara stated.

"Uhhh, you two?" We looked as Oswald pointed at a prominent stone block in the middle of the area with a heart engraved on it.

"What's this supposed to be?" I thought aloud.

"Well, um...yep, yep, I think that's a chopping block." Oswald said. "...Definitely a chopping block."

"Chopping block!?" Me and Clara instinctively clutched our throats.

"How horrible!" She gasped.

"Looks like whoever in charge is very chop-happy." Oswald grimaced.

"What are you three doing in my castle!?" We all jumped as a loud booming voice echoed around us. We looked up to see someone who definitely didn't look like she belonged here. She was a fat pale-skinned queen wearing a tiny golden crown with black and red robes and a heart on a stick. Following her was a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and glasses of all things!

"Your...castle?" I said, looking around at the ruins. "Are you sure?"

"Silence!" She boomed. "I see what's going on here! You three are after my life!"

"What!?" All three of us gasped.

"You thought you could just waltz in here and kill me like those monsters!? You despicable beings!" She ranted.

"Hold on a second!" I yelled. "We weren't even thinking that! We were just trying to find something!"

"Impossible! Everything here is mine! There's nothing for you to find!...Unless you took my life!" She yelled.

"...Is she deaf?" I whispered to the other two, who could only shrug.

"What are you mumbling about down there!?" She shouted. "I've seen enough! Guilty! Oooooooooooff with their heads!"

Suddenly, soldiers that looked like playing cards all sprung up in the stands and began cheering as the giant metal door in front of us slowly opened. What came out of it was a more, gruesome version of a card soldier. The heart on its front had colours that were dripping down, almost as if the heart was bleeding, and it carried a giant dark red axe with a heart shaped head, and wore a black spade shaped executioners hood. This was the Executioner of Hearts.

"That doesn't look good!" I gasped as the way we came in was barred by an iron gate.

The Executioner reached behind its back and somehow pulled out a mushroom which it ate, causing it to quickly grow to thrice its size!

"And that's definitely not good!" Clara gasped as the now giant Executioner pulled its axe back. We all ran out of the way as its axe crashed into the ground with tremendous force, causing the crowd of cards to cheer wildly.

"Looks like we're fighting!" Oswald declared as we readied our weapons.

The Executioner swung its axe in a wide birth that we barely managed to avoid. Oswald jumped and swung at the Executioner's head, but the giant merely blocked it with its hand before swiping its arms and knocking him back. Clara ran forward and bit its leg using her Familiar, but it easily shook her off before I charged forward. I honestly had no idea what to do against an opponent like this, so I tried stretching my whips forward and slashing at its flat body, but it seemed to barely feel it as it swung its axe, making me fall on my stomach as it sliced through the air over my head.

"How on earth are we supposed to fight something this size!?" I yelled out.

"Ya never watched giant monster movies? Aim for its head!" Oswald said as he smacked it across the leg with his Wrench.

"My whips can't reach that high!" I argued.

"But you've got something else now, right?" Clara asked.

"...Oh, right! My Magic!" I remembered. "But I can only use it twice...I'm gonna have to get a good aim!"

"I can help!" Clara declared. She jumped forward and held her Familiar forward. "Blizzard!" The Familiar coughed out a ball of ice that froze the giants hands, causing them to collapse to its sides.

"Right! Fire!" I shot a fireball from the Guardiam that crashed into its face, making it stumble back.

"Great! We're pressuring it!" Oswald declared as he brought his weapon down on its back.

"Awesome!" I declared as I ran forward. "I'm gonna hit it hard!"

"Nox! I'll give you a boost!" Clara waved.

"Boost?" I echoed.

"Yeah!...Just don't scream!" Suddenly her Familiar grew large and swallowed all of me apart from my head sticking out!

"...Wha-?" I gasped as I felt like I was completely enveloped in felt before Clara aimed me at its head.

"Launch!" She yelled as the Familiar suddenly spat me forward!

"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed as I shot through the air, closing in on it. "Ahhh c'mon, Nox! Act cool!" I flailed wildly some more.

Suddenly, a whole bunch of the card soldiers suddenly gathered together and formed a wall that blocked my punch.

"Ah! Ahhhhhhhhh!" I yelled as I fell, thankfully Oswald jumped and grabbed me, making us both land safely. "Clara! A little warning next time!"

"It was fun, though, right?" She smiled.

However, our chat was cut short as all the card soldiers in the stands began flying around with long spears and swooped down on us at high speeds.

"This is unfair!" Clara whined as we dodged the now attacking soldiers as the giant one was still attacking us, the combined assault meant that I was slashed across the chest and the face, before being thrown skyward by the force of the crashing big axe and painfully landing.

"Gah! C...Clara, O-Oswald...the big guys easy, at least he's an easy target. We gotta get rid of these things first!" I used my whips to slap several of them out of the air, making them flutter to the ground like useless cards.

"Easy! Thunder!" Oswald cast the Spell again which zapped a group of them.

"Gotcha!" Clara winked as her Familiar opened up and grabbed several of them in its mouth, before forcefully spitting them out at the Executioner who blocked its own comrades with its axe.

"Okay! This time-!" I ran forward with a punch again, but the remaining ones formed a wall around him lightning fast, before the one in front of me stabbed me in the gut. A sharp pain flared up from my stomach and I fell to my knees as I clutched my abdomen.

"Nox!" Clara suddenly pulled me out of the way as the axe crashed down where we previously stood. She quickly used a Potion, causing the pain to fade away. "Are you okay?"

"Now I am, I think." I said as I quickly stood up whilst Oswald beat away the rest of the cards.

"That's the rest of them." No sooner had Oswald said that when dozens more card soldiers shot out of the crowds. "Oh come on!"

"How are we supposed to deal with all of this?" Clara gasped as her Familiar attacked the card soldiers again.

'This is bad...c'mon! Think!' I panicked. 'I can only use Fire one more time...and even if I use the Guardiarm on the soldiers, more just keep appearing! What do I do!?'

I quickly took out the bigger orb with a star in it. "Can you do something!? Anything to help!?" I took out the rest of the small dark orbs, there were fifteen now. "You have to be useful somehow!" I held all sixteen shards over the Guardiarm, and suddenly it gave off the soft light again. "Wait...now it's working?"

"Nox! Watch out!" Clara cried as some soldiers suddenly descended towards me.

"Okay! C'mon! Focus...Synthesis!" The orbs combined together and gave off a strong light that suddenly pushed back all of the soldiers and somehow deflected the giant heavy axe.

When the light faded away, I was holding something. It was a long, dark blue lance with little white dots on it, resembling space. The head of the lance had a bright yellow star in the middle of it, as its elongated point was layered with green, blue and pink neon colours. I later named this the Star Spear.

"What's...this?" I gaped at it. I didn't have long before the cards suddenly swooped down on me again! "Ah! Uh...do something, please!"

I held the spear forward in an attempt to do...something, when suddenly it launched itself forward, spinning like a rocket! It drilled through the cards like paper before smashing into the Executioner with such force it pinned it to the wall before it vanished in a beam of light.

"Woah..." I stared at the damage the attack had done in awe.

"Nox!" Clara quickly helped me up.

"Don't worry, I'm good." I assured her. "This is our chance! Let's finish it whilst its downed!"

"Way ahead of you!" Oswald declared as he aimed his wrench, and the spring part sprung forward and hit it in the head, before latching on with its teeth, and pulling the giants head down to smash it into the ground. It groaned as it reached for its axe which it dropped.

"No you don't!" Clara's Familiar bit the giants arm, making it retreat in recoil.

"I've gotta finish this now!" I thought aloud, looking at the axe. "Maybe if...!" I wrapped my whips around the axe, and using all of my strength (mostly the Guardiarm's power) I lifted the axe above my head. "Nnnngh! Clara! Oswald!"

"We got it!" Oswald said as he weighed down one of its arms.

"Go for it, Nox!" Clara cheered, holding down the other arm as the giant flapped feebly beneath them.

"Nnnnnnngh! Bloody Beheader!" Using all my strength, I slashed the giants neck with its own axe, causing the giant as well as its axe to explode into red paper hearts. I then promptly sat down. "Phew..."

"Way to go, Nox!" Clara cheered.

"What was that you yelled?" Oswald asked.

"Uh...attack name?" I responded.

"...Cool." He gave me a thumbs up.

"You...! How dare you defeat my executioner!" The queen yelled. "Guards! Seize them!...Guards!"

"...Looks like you're out of guards." I observed, looking around at the empty stands. "Guess that means we win."

"You!? Win!? I always win!" The queen screamed. "Always!"

"I think that's enough." Clara said. "I don't think the Door to Light is here."

"Yeah, especially with this loud bagpipe hag here." Oswald muttered.

"Guess so. Welp, see you, Queen!" I waved.

"Wha-!? Where are you going!?"

"Our own way." I said as the gate behind us opened.

"You can't! All ways are mine here! MINE!" She continued to rant as we walked out and I couldn't help but smile a little.

"A shame...this is such an interesting world too." Clara lamented as we walked.

"Shame the people are a bit...eccentric." I chose my words carefully.

"Don't worry. Not all worlds are like this." Oswald assured me. "By the way, Nox...that spear you summoned..."

"Oh yeah, I made it from Synthesis...but..." I focused again. I felt completely empty. "It completely drained my MP, and it was just one attack."

"Maybe because it was born from Heartless." Clara theorised.

"That might make it dangerous. Maybe you shouldn't try that again, Nox." Oswald said.

"Are you kidding? If I have something like this, its a new ability to experiment with!" I couldn't help but grin. "The Guardiarm is awesome!"

"Hmmm...okay. But if you fall into the darkness, I'll kill you." Oswald stated simply.

"What!?"

"Just kidding!" He laughed.

"But you said it so seriously..." I breathed.

We stepped through the mirror back into the more bizarre Wonderland. "Hey, we didn't find Sora's group." I realised.

"Oh, you remembered too. Bit of a shame." Oswald nodded. "But on the other hand, who's to say that cat could even be trusted?"

"Being trusting of a stranger means you should distrust your trusting." Speak of the devil and he shall appear on a tree branch.

"You. You know a lot more then you let on." I stated.

"Indeed. My mind tends to go a wandering, much like you three are doing. And the other three. And others." He grinned. "So much wandering to do, so much to see...yet I never leave."

"Something about you is definitely...different from anything else here, yet still belongs here." Clara said.

"Quite." The cat agreed rather simply. "But you shouldn't dwell on me. After all, there are other things far more dangerous to dwell on."

"What are you talking about now?" I thought aloud.

"Wanderers such as yourselves can be dangerous things." The cat said. "Beware of what you find, because the truth is also a very dangerous thing, because what is it in the end? Really, a man with mirrors and delusions. And that is the most dangerous man of all." He then faded away.

"Until the very end...he confuses me." Oswald sighed.

"Guess we'll just have to find out about it later." I shrugged.

We returned to the weird room and got back to normal size with the other bottle, before returning to our ship.

"Onto the next one, then." Oswald said, before turning to me. "How was it?"

"Hm?" I realised he was talking to me.

"Your first world."

"Well...it was certainly weird." I admitted, but then I smiled. "But looking back on it, I can't help but smile at how beautifully weird it really was."

"That's the spirit!" Clara cheered. "Let's go and find a weirder world next!"

"Yeah!" I cheered. "Let's go!" And so we set off again, leaving my first new world behind us.

* * *

 **Info**

 **Shade Shard: Used in Shard Synthesis. Dropped by Pureblood Heartless**

 **Ember Shard: Used in Shard Synthesis. Dropped by Fire-related Heartless.**

 **Star Spear: A Heartfelt Attack based off of the Nightstar. It shoots the spear as a drilling attack that launches in a straight line.**

 **Executioner of Hearts: The queens very own favourite card from the other side of Wonderland. Its upgraded size and deadly axe gave it tremendous strength, but it was no match for the combined might of Nox, Clara and Oswald!**

* * *

 **And so the second chapter is out, completing Wonderland quite quickly Let me know what you guys think about this style of one world each chapter. Should I continue like this, or should I slow down a bit?**

 **Also, just to let you know, I will be telling this story as if it was an actual Kingdom Hearts game. Including all of Nox's abilities, like the Guardiarm Synthesis.**

 **Nox has the ability to use Heartfelt Attacks, which he can make through Shard Synthesis. Heartfelt Attacks act as his own form of Sora's Summons, and allows Nox to unleash a powerful attack based off of the Boss Heartless he got the main Shard from.**

 **Now then, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! And I'll see you in the next one! Let me know which world you want to see next: Deep Jungle or Olympus Coliseum!**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: In the Jungle

"Fire! Fire!"

I shot two fireballs at the wall, causing the Gummi Blocks to break away and fall to the ground. Thankfully I just picked them back up and they stuck back into the wall perfectly, like jelly.

"Gummi's are fascinating..." I couldn't help but think aloud as I studied the wall. I was currently in a 'training room' in the Gummi Ship practicing my usage of magic, which was only Fire at this point. Clara had tried teaching me other things like Blizzard and Cure, but it just didn't come naturally. It was obviously because of the Guardiarm that I was able to use Magic, meaning the answer lay within its Synthesis. I felt so incredibly giddy just waiting to find out more about it!

"Hey there." I turned as Clara walked through the door, still smiling. "How's it going?"

"Good, I think. I've gotten used to casting it. I just can't improve my MP right now." I admitted.

"Give it time. Getting better at magic is the same as getting better at anything."

"I'm just kind of excited, I mean, I can use Magic now!" I told her. "I wonder if I can figure out how it works?"

"Good luck wi' that." Oswald chuckled as he walked in. "I've been trying to explain Magic using science for ages. Zero luck."

"Huh...wait, if you're here, who's driving the ship?" I asked.

"Auto-Pilot. Very handy." He nodded.

"Hmmm, I feel like I should go check things out, just in case." I mumbled, heading out of the room.

"There's nothin' ta worry about, Nox." Oswald insisted.

"I know, I just-woah!" I gasped as I got into the cockpit and saw a world approaching. It looked like a sphere covered in lush foliage and waterfalls. "Is that a new world!?"

"It is!" Clara pointed excitedly. "I've never seen that one before!"

"It's a jungle! I've never seen a jungle before!" I cried out excitedly.

"Well, there's always a chance the Door to Light is there." Oswald reasoned as he took the wheel.

"Ah! Let me strap in this time!" I cried as I hurried to my seat.

I held onto my seat this time as the ship shot into the world, and we stopped in the air, above a lush foliage.

"A real jungle! Let's go!" I cried excitedly as the Gummi Ship descended down and we hopped out onto tree branches. "This is so cool! Look at these trees! They're giant! And look at this flower! I don't even know what it is!"

"He's like a junior in a jungle gym." Oswald chuckled.

"You really like this, Nox?" Clara asked sweetly.

"Yeah! I mean, I've lived in Traverse Town as far back as I can remember, I've never seen a forest, let alone a jungle! Look at all these different types of nature!" I took a deep breath in. "Even the air smells different! It's so clean, and slightly smelly!"

"Right then! Time to explore for the Door of Light!" Clara cheered.

In my excitement I activated the Guardiarm and stretched the whips up to the tallest branch I could grab onto, pulling myself up and looking around. It was nothing but jungles, foliage and waterfalls, and beyond that, clear blue ocean.

"This place is incredible...it looks so huge!" I giggled, before realising something. "Oooooh god, this is really high up!"

I hung on a bit tighter, when I noticed something. It looked like...some kind of giant treehouse? Suspended on top of the trees.

"A treehouse? So people actually live here?" I wondered.

"Hey, Nox! Are you okay?" Clara called up.

"Yeah! I actually see a treehouse!" I called down. "Maybe someone lives there who could show us around!"

"Worth a go, I suppose." Oswald figured as I lowered myself down. "Lead the way."

 **Deep Jungle**

We began running through the dense treetops towards the treehouse. Though it was kinda difficult with all the foliage.

"This place feels gigantic." I said.

"Not helpin' is that we haven't seen anything other then trees." Oswald said.

"Maybe we'll run into some Heartless to destroy!" Clara beamed.

"Seriously, don't say it like that." Oswald grimaced.

It was then that I noticed a large figure inbetween some trees. "Hey, I think I see someone!"

"Really?" Oswald asked as we all looked over. "Hmm...seems kinda fat. Must be a gorilla or something."

"Hey! Who's you callin' a gorilla!?" The figure suddenly yelled.

"It talked!" Oswald cried out overdramatically.

"Oswald..." I mumbled.

Then, the figure jumped through the trees and in front of us. And Oswald was right, he was fat, all stuffed inside some kind of blue and red jumpsuit, with a stretched chin and sharp, horn like ears, but with a kinda dumb looking face.

"Who d'ya think you pipsqueaks are, talkin' about me like dat!?" The guy questioned angrily.

"I'm thinking we're skinny. Unlike some." Oswald snarked.

"You got a big mouth on ya for such a shrimp." The guy growled. "...A kinda familiar shrimp...hmm..."

"Um, guys...his appearance." Clara spoke.

"Yeah...you're not from this world, are ya?" Oswald accused.

"Oh, so you's can tell that, can ya?" He said.

"To be fair, you kind of stick out in this jungle." I added. "Are you a world traveller too?"

"Well ya see, the ting is-wait! I'm not supposed to tell you punks nothin'!" He said. "I gots a job to be doing, and I can't find any good candidates anywhere! No way your shrimp little selves are gonna do either...I'm gonna have to keep looking!" He then did a jump right over us and into the foliage!

"Hey, wait!" I tried to give chase, but he was already lost in the greenery. "What on earth was that about?"

Oswald folded his arms. "Dunno, but it might be trouble. He seemed kinda familiar for some reason, too."

"If he can travel between worlds, he must be special somehow." Clara said. "Let's cross our fingers that we run into him again."

"We're gonna need to in order to find him here." I figured.

We did arrive at the tree house and had a look around inside, but it was evident the place was deserted from all the destroyed furniture, and the dust.

"Nobody here." I stated.

"If somebody built it, somebody USED to be here, which means this world can't be deserted." Oswald said.

"Or maybe they all died!" Clara spoke up.

We both looked at her ever-present smile, and I leaned down to Oswald. "Is she always like this?"

"Sometimes. The creepiness comes and goes." He whispered back.

Just then, Heartless suddenly jumped in through the broken windows! Only they looked like monkeys! I named these guys Powerwild's, because Manicey sounded weird.

"Heartless!" We got out our weapons as we prepared for battle.

These Heartless were much more wild then the ones we'd faced previously (shocking, I know). They bounced off the walls and leapt down on us claws flailing madly, forcing me to block with the Guardiarm as I backed away.

"Fire!" I shot a fireball at one which knocked it to the ground. I then g rabbed it by the tail and wung it over my head like a club, beating more up with the one I had until they were all defeated.

"That looks like all of 'em." Oswald said as he squashed the last one underneath his Wrench, whilst Clara vacuumed up the goodies.

"These ones just dropped regular Shadow Shards..." I mumbled as I picked them up.

"Where Heartless are, hearts are. There's gotta be people around here." Oswald reasoned.

"Um, guys?" Clara pointed to the door.

Looking inside was a gorilla with dark fur, staring cautiously.

"Huh...you were right about gorillas, Oswald." I said.

"People or primates I guess. Life has been found." Oswald declared...just as the gorilla turned and ran.

"The life is getting away." I pointed dumbly.

"Then let's follow!" Oswald beckoned as we all ran out, and watched as it jumped into the foliage. "Alright, since everybody seems to be doing it, we're umping down too!"

"Wait, seriously!? What if we fall to our deaths!?" I gasped.

"Plenty of trees to grab onto." Clara figured.

"Fine then, I'll go first." Oswald said as he jumped in. "...Hey guys! There's this giant trunk heeeeere! Wooooah!"

"Oswald!?" I jumped in after him, and landed on a long, winding trunk, which I began sliding down! "Wh-whaaaaaaat!?"

Now all three of us were surfing down this trunk, trees whizzing past us as the sky stretched above us.

"Ha ha! We're riding a tree, guys!" Oswald laughed.

"Th-This is-!" I was having trouble keeping balance!

"Wheeeee!" Clara was enjoying herself at least.

"I think I see the end coming up!" Oswald called. "Get ready!"

"I'm not! I'm not!" I panicked. "Aaaaaahhhhh!"

The end of the tree was literally the end! We fell of the edge and began falling, until we splashed into water! I pulled myself out and gasped for air before luckily being able to stand up, the water being knee high.

"Let's do that again!" Clara laughed.

"Agh, I'm all wet." I shook my head, when I realised something. "Oswald! Is your wrench okay!?"

"Please, do you doubt me?" He said. "I made sure to make it waterproof." He then proceeded to wring out his ears.

Looking around, we seemed to be surrounded by waterfalls. A group of elephants were also walking around in the water.

"First gorillas, now elephants." Clara noted. "Maybe they can talk."

"Animals can talk in other worlds?" I questioned.

"Ahem." Oswald coughed.

"Oh...sorry." I mumbled.

"In some worlds, yes. But I haven't heard anybody speak so far, have you?" He said.

"You tell me, you're the one with the ears." I pointed out.

"Marvellous, aren't they?...Wait..." His ears actually perked up. "I hear talking!"

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah...this way!" He pointed.

We waded through the water and ended up running through some bamboo shoots, until we reached a small camp. It was simple, but also pretty messy with different apparatuses and equipment next to a tent.

"A camp. Somebody must live here." I said.

"Talkin's coming from in here." Oswald pointed to the tent, when suddenly a man came out of it. "Woooah, hello!"

And...well, he was a guy. A guy that was only dressed in a loincloth, walking on his knuckles and carrying a spear.

"Okay then..." Oswald backed away. "Should I have expected that?"

"That voice...!" A voice inside of the tent said.

"That voice!" I gasped.

"Sir Oswald!" Suddenly, Goofy and Donald burst out of the tent, followed by Sora!

"You two!" Oswald gasped.

"And Sora!" I added.

"Hey, it's you guys!" Sora exclaimed.

"Oh, are these friends of yours?" Then, a woman wearing a simple white shirt and brown dress emerged from the tent.

"Yeah. This is Nox, Oswald and Clara." Sora introduced us.

"So you must be part of the same exploration group." The woman figured. "My name is Jane. I'm here researching gorillas with my father, and our bodyguard, Clayton."

"Sora! Refer to him as SIR Oswald!" Donald insisted.

"I don't have to listen to you!" Sora argued.

"Uh...Goofy, what's with them?" Oswald asked.

"Oh, they had a bit of a fight, Sir Oswald." Goofy said.

"That's bad!" Clara gasped.

"Hey, it's alright." I assured her. "Friends do have fights sometimes."

"Really?" She seemed to ponder that, weirdly.

"Anyway, you guys are looking for the Door to the Light here, right?" Sora asked.

"That's right." Oswald nodded.

"We've been roped into gorilla seeking." Donald muttered.

"Willingly helping." Sora insisted.

"Gorilla seeking?" I echoed.

"Yes, that's what we came here to study my father and me." Jane said. "The thing is, I've been incredibly worried, what with Clayton's behaviour, and all of these nasty Heartless creatures appearing. That's why I've asked for their help alongside Tarzan."

"Tarzan, wouldn't happen to be this guy, would it?" Oswald recoiled as the hunched man sniffed him.

"That's right. He lives among the gorillas." Jane explained. "He is our closest lead to studying them."

"Gorillas aren't really my thing, but I can respect your studies." Oswald said, as I nodded.

"Really? Then, would you also be willing to help?" She asked.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"Sora's group and Tarzan are going to take me to find some Gorillas." Jane explained. "But my father and Clayton have gone off searching on their own, and with the Heartless around..."

"It's understandable that you're worried." Oswald figured. "We were looking around anyway, so we can search for your dad and this Clayton guy. Should be easy as long as they're...y'know, human."

"Is it okay to be...going around helping people in other worlds?" I whispered.

"World travelling has one golden rule; don't let anybody know you're from another world." Oswald said. "Apart from that, we're practically free. She did the work for us, thinking we're some kinda research team. Besides, what kinda guy ignores a damsel in distress?"

"Do you ignore that, Nox?" Clara questioned.

"What? No, I wasn't suggesting that." I defended myself. "I was just wondering, that's all."

"I'll leave the rest in your capable hands, then." Oswald nodded.

"You can count on us, Sir Oswald!" Goofy saluted.

"We'll meet up back here when we're done." I told Sora.

"Sounds like a plan." He agreed.

"There's another path branching off from those waterfalls. Let's start there." Clara suggested.

"Okay." I nodded.

So we headed back the way we came and diverted from Sora's group, and ended up climbing up some vines into a thick canopy.

"Seriously, what's you relationship with Donald and Goofy?" I pestered Oswald.

"I'm just a friend of their friend. They take it way too seriously though." Oswald said.

"Nox!" Before I could retort me and Oswald turned to look at Clara. "I...um...I think you smell!"

Me and Oswald just stared at her blankly.

"...Was...that too much?" She asked innocently.

"What was that meant to be?" I questioned.

"Well, you said that friends fight sometimes. So I thought if we fought a bit, we'd make up and become better friends." She figured.

"...Oh...Clara, we don't need to fight to be better friends." I told her. "I guess just being together makes us better friends."

"Really? That's even better!" She beamed.

I knelt down to Oswald. "Seriously? She was confused by that?"

"There are some things which are new or different to her." He whispered back. "Concepts she doesn't understand. I think it has to do with her life in her world."

"Does she talk about it?"

"Not really. And I don't wanna pry, seems to be a sensitive subject."

"What are you two doing?" She asked.

"Nothing." We both stated as we stood up.

"In that case, shall we get going?" She said as she walked past us.

Me and Oswald looked at each other and shrugged before hurrying after her. We continued on and finally came to a thick canopy covered in moss, with hollowed out trunks and nests all over.

"This place looks like..." I mumbled.

"Where the gorillas live, ya reckon? Me too." Oswald said.

"Think Jane's father is here?" I wondered aloud, when suddenly a scream filled the area! "That's our answer!"

We rushed over and saw a man dressed in explorer gear cowering from a group of Powerwild's, and orange variants wearing bows and carrying slings that I named Bouncywild's.

"Heartless attack!" Clara declared as her Familiar flew forward and bit down on the head of a Powerwild.

"Leave it to us, then!" Oswald declared as he batted away another Powerwild.

"Right! Time to-OW!" I cried out as something ht me in the face. Turned out it was a stone shot by a Bouncywild, who was now giggling mischievously. "Why you-ahhhh!"

As I went to rush it, I had slipped on a banana peel of all things, much to the amusement of the other Powerwild's.

"Cheeky little-!" I shot the Guardiarm forward and decked one in the face, before slapping away the other two

"Come back here you-!" Oswald was chasing after a Bouncywild that was avoiding him and pelting him with rocks. It taunted him by dancing, but was suddenly tackled to the ground by Clara's Familiar so that Oswald could crush it with his wrench.

"You're welcome." She said.

"I could've handled it myself." He defended himself. "I just didn't wanna waste my MP."

I finished off the last Bouncywild by hammering it with my arm. "These Heartless...their behaviour is more mischievous then others...do Heartless act differently too? But if so...what causes that if they don't have a heart?"

"Hey, Nox!" Oswald waved. "We found him! Cowering over here!"

We gathered around the rather small, white moustached man in traditional adventurer gear s he gathered his bearings.

"Oh thank you. I must admit, I thought I was a goner for a moment there." He admitted.

"Are you Jane's father?" I asked.

"You know my daughter? How wonderful!" He clapped. "My name is Dr. Archimedes Q. Porter. But, you can just use my title of Professor, if that is easier."

"Jane sent us to come and find ya. She was gettin' worried." Oswald said.

"Oh dear, I didn't mean to worry her." He said. "I was just out doing a bit of field research, and I was fortunate enough to come across this area. It seems to be a home for gorillas, but the only thing I found were all those blasted creatures."

"Do you think the gorillas fled from the Heartless?" Clara wondered.

"Most likely." Oswald nodded. "In any case, we should get you back to camp."

"I believe that would be best." He agreed. "I don't think I could stand any more of those monsters appearing. And I could really go for a cup of tea."

We began heading back the way we came, when suddenly a loud noise cracked through the air.

"What was that!?" I gasped.

"It sounded like a gunshot!" The Professor gasped.

"Let's go!" Oswald said as we hurried on.

 **Info**

 **Nox's infobox colour is Gold. His current Guardiarm is the Partner Arm.**

 **Oswald's infobox colour is Purple. His current Wrench is the Oswald Original.**

 **Clara's infobox colour is Pink. Her cureent Familiar is the Little Imp.**

 **Any allies the group get has a Silver infobox.**

* * *

 **Updating Vision Mix...it's been a while.**

 **But I've been listening to 'Face my Fears' a lot and I'm in the Kingdom Hearts mood with 3 only one month away...hopefully...please let it be just one month away.**

 **But another reason. This can be considered a Christmas present for one of my most loyal readers, ScalchopWarrior. She likes this story and since I'm in the mood, I might as well dedicate this chapter to her. Merry Christmas.**

 **Also, a major thing to those of you who have read this story before; I did a massive change and changed one of the characters, namely Oswald, from an original character I had. Why is this? Well, I wanted to include a Disney character in the trio, and I feel Oswald needs more love. So yeah, I updates the previous two chapters as well. Quite a bit of work. But it was worth it I feel.**

 **With all that said, next chapter is the rest of Deep Jungle. See ya then.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Nature of the Heartless

We hurried back to the camp where we seemed to come in on an argument. Sora's group was here along with Jane and Tarzan, with her yelling at a man with a sharp moustache, carrying a shotgun.

"What's going on here!?" Oswald asked.

"Clayton here shot at a gorilla." Sora said.

"What!?" The Professor pushed to the front.

"Now, I already told you, I was not aiming at the gorilla, merely at a snake slithering by!" The man named Clayton defended himself.

"Shooting in the vicinity of one is not allowed!" The Professor said.

"You are NOT to go near the gorillas again!" Jane said.

"Come on! This is..." Clayton froze however, as all of us glared at him, and he left the tent, defeated.

"Absolutely despicable." The Professor said.

"Father, I'm glad you're safe." Jane said. "Thank you, everyone."

"It's no problem." I shrugged.

"Hmmm..." Clara mumbled.

"What's up?" Oswald asked.

"That man..." She said. "His heart was filled with darkness."

"What?" I gasped.

"Gawrsh, you can tell that?" Goofy asked.

"Clara is very in tune with peoples hearts and the light within them." Oswald explained. "If she says a heart is dark, it's true."

"I think we could already tell." Sora said.

"It's worse then that." Clara went on. "A heart that dark can easily attract Heartle-"

She was interrupted however when the sound of gunshot suddenly pierced through the air.

"Again!?" Donald cried.

"Let's check it out!" Sora said as all six of us plus Tarzan ran outside, but Clayton was nowhere to be found.

"That gunshot sounded close, right?" I questioned.

"Yeah, but I don't see anybody." Oswald mumbled.

"Let's look around." Sora said, and we all headed into the bamboo thicket.

"See anything?" I asked.

"Over there!" Goofy pointed, and we ran over to a rock where a small pipe was sitting.

"What's that?" Clara asked.

"Looks like the pipe that Clayton was using." Donald said.

"That's never a good sign." I said.

"Or we could be happy that such a horrible person is gone?" Clara suggested with her ever present smile.

We all gave her varying looks. You can decide for yourself who gave which type of look.

Then, a roar resounded throughout the area, and a jaguar leapt out of the thicket!

"It's that thing again!" Sora gasped as we all got battle ready.

The jaguar roared and leapt at us, very quickly, giving us little time to dodge.

"Even so, it's just one jaguar. All its got is claws and teeth against us seven!" Oswald said.

Tarzan then made a bunch of noises.

"What did he say?" I asked.

Suddenly, the jaguar leapt back into the bamboo thicket.

"...It was probably that it knows it can't take on seven of us." Oswald said.

"Ah..." Sora said as we all relaxed.

"Think Clayton got eaten by that thing?" I wondered.

"I don't think so. Didn't see any blood or severed limbs." Clara nodded.

"...Fair enough." Was all I said.

"What should we do now, then?" Sora asked.

"I guess all we can do is head back to the camp." Donald shrugged.

We walked back in, when suddenly, Clara froze.

"Huh? What's up, Clara?" Oswald asked.

"Uh...I can feel some Heartless." She said.

"Where?" Oswald pressed.

"Mmmmmmm everywhere." Clara admitted. "Like...literally everywhere."

"R-Really?" Sora asked.

"Like I said. She knows this stuff." Oswald said.

"So, bad." Sora nodded.

"Bad." Goofy agreed.

"What do we do?" I said.

"Isn't it obvious? We beat them all!" Clara declared.

"...Sounds good to me." Donald shrugged.

"But this is a lot of jungle to cover." I said.

"Then we'll split up. Our trios have been doing good so far." Oswald reasoned.

"You can count on us, Sir Oswald." Goofy and Donald saluted.

"Seriously, stop." He said.

"We'll take the waterfalls, then." I nodded.

"And we'll take the treehouse." Sora said.

"Alright! Let's break!" Oswald declared as we ran off.

We ran over to the waterfalls and...

"Aw, I just got dry as well." I sighed as I jumped in and hurried along.

"Over there!" Oswald pointed.

Several elephants were being harassed by a group of Powerwild's, with a bunch of green Red Nocturne's. I named them Green Requiem's...the music naming scheme works!

"There they are!" I declared as we all got battle ready.

"So they really did start swarming, but why now?" Oswald wondered.

"Maybe it's because something happened to that Clayton." Clara suggested. "His dark heart could have drawn them here."

"For now, let's just focus on taking them out!" Oswald cried as we charged.

I stretched the whip out and lashed it forward, catching several Powerwild's and launching them all back, whilst Oswald hit another with his Wrench like a hammer, whilst Clara grabbed her Familiar and tossed it like a ball, bowling over several more.

When suddenly some of them gained a green light, and they were immediately back on their feet!

"What the-!?" I gasped.

"Was that Cure?" Clara wondered.

"Ah! It's those!" I pointed up at the green Heartless as they each cast Cure. "Wait, so they're support only? Heartless can use tactics like this?"

"Don't overthink it." Oswald told me. "Heartess are most commonly randomly created. These ones probably just turned out like this and just do what they can."

"Yeah, but still..." I jumped up and hit one of the green ones with my whip. "Isn't it still kinda strategic for mindless creatures?"

"It's survival instincts." Clara said as she jumped up and threw her Familiar over her head like a net, causing it to swallow another one.

Without the Green Requiem's, the rest of the Powerwild's were cleared out pretty easily.

"I wonder if this is getting easier..." I mumbled.

"Why do you say that?" Clara asked from behind me, making me jump.

"W-Well, I'm hoping I'm getting stronger." I admitted.

"'Course you are, we all are." Oswald said. "Fighting and winning makes you stronger. It helps you learn new things, it strengthens your magic, you become more proficient with your weapon. Everything helps."

Just then, one of the elephants came over. It looked kinda red, and it offered me a small thing that looked like a chest, only smaller and rounder.

"An Item box?" Oswald noted.

"So, it's like the chests?" I asked.

"Yeah." He nodded as I accepted it.

"Let's see..." I opened it and pulled out a sorta familiar, green block.

"A Gummi Block!" Oswald instantly grabbed and examined it. "Ah, and it's a defense block too! Nice!"

"That's a normal Gummi Block?" I stared at it. "Looks a bit bigger then individual blocks."

"That's so that it can more easily attach itself to other Gummi's, by molding itself." Oswald explained.

"Gummi's are cool." I whispered.

"Thank you, Mr. Elephant!" Clara cheered.

"Let's keep going." Oswald motioned.

We headed back up into the treetops and defeated another group of Powerwild's and Bouncywild's.

"What's up with all of these monkey Heartless!?" Oswald cred.

"...We're in a jungle...it fits?" I guessed.

"Heartless don't gravitate towards worlds 'suited' to them or anything. Mindless, remember?" Oswald emphasised.

"You keep telling me." I nod.

"They must've just adapted to the environment or something." Oswald said.

"Or loads of people got their hearts taken in this world." Clara also suggested.

"...That would be...a lot of gorillas." I mumbled.

"Just don't think about it." Oswald tried to reassure me with a pat to the leg.

Some gorillas approached us and offered us another box, which I opened.

"Another Gummi Block!" Oswald took it.

"...Hm?" I noticed that the other gorillas were offering us some fruits and berries. "Oh, are these for us, too? Thank you." I accepted them gratefully, I had an idea for them later.

"This is turning out to be pretty profitable." Oswald said.

"Yeah." I held out my Guardiarm as four green orbs with a leaf in each hovered there. "These Shards I got from the Green Requiem's...I think I can make Cure if I get a few more. That would be really handy."

"Just remember, a Potion is always good to." Clara said. "Cure is all well and good until you run out of MP."

"We should check one more area." Oswald said. "Hm...looks like there are some more trees we can surf on here."

"A-Again?" I mumbled.

"Yay!" Clara cheered. "Let's go!"

"Ahhhhhhh!" I cried out as we all went sliding down the trees again.

"It's alright! I've got you!" Clara said as she held onto me.

"I-I don't need help!" I said.

"Okay!" She let go and I immediately started wobbling.

"I need it! I need it!" I panicked as she grabbed me again, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Even though it was embarrassing...

"Don't know what you're so wobbly about." Oswald shrugged. "This is eas-ack!" He got whacked in the face with a branch.

"Hahaha-ouch!" My gloating was cut short as I got hit in the forehead by an overhanging branch.

We reached the end and ended up on a cliffside overlooking a shore, with vines wrapped all around the place.

"This is new..." I noted as I looked around. I could actually see the campsite from here.

"Heartless spotted!" Clara pointed.

This Heartless seemed to be completely covered in a white robe, with a red cap on it. I called it a White Mushroom...because that's basically what it looked like.

"Just one?" Oswald thought aloud.

I stared at it for a moment as it looked at us. "It sees us...but it's just standing there."

"It might be a trap." Oswald said.

"I thought you said Heartless can't have complicated things like tactics." I muttered with half-lidded eyes.

"Like I said, it's probably an instinctive manoeuvre rather then using actual thought." He argued back with half-lidded eyes.

"Sooooo, are we gonna get it?" Clara said.

"I'll go!" I immediately ran forward.

"Hey!" Oswald growled, but I was already there.

"There's something about you, isn't there?" I asked it.

The Heartless looked up at me, then crouched down and began waving its hands.

"What's that gesture? Cowering? Shivering?" It seemed to quicken its pace at my mention of shivering.

"What's taking so long!?" Oswald called.

"Gimme a second!" I called back. "Shivering, huh? What does that mean?"

It just continued doing the little dance.

"Shivering...shivering...could this be it?" I summoned the Guardiarm and held my palm out. "Fire!"

As the fireball hit it, the Heartless suddenly jumped up in joy and scattered a load of MP orbs, as well as handing me a Shard with a mushroom cap like its own to me.

"Thank you." I said as it vanished.

"Hold on, what the heck was that!?" Oswald cried as he and Clara ran over.

"I...think I just played a game with it, or something." I figured.

"It didn't attack, it played a game, it even gave you rewards! I've never seen a Heartless like that before!" Oswald cried.

"Sooooo, does that mean my argument has some merit?" I smirked.

"Ooooh no! I'm not accepting that yet! I'll think of a reason for this!" He insisted as he tapped his head.

"Nox...why are you so insistent on giving the Heartless an identity?" Clara asked, quite seriously. "They're monsters born from the darkness in hearts that terrorise others. Why try to give them meaning?"

"Give it meaning? I wouldn't go that far." I folded my arms. "The Heartless...apart from people in Traverse Town, they were basically the only other kind of life I knew. I suppose I've always wanted to learn more about them, and classify them for the sake of others. But still...that white one, it definitely didn't act like a monster. So what are Heartless really? What determines their appearance, how they act, why they attack? It might just be my own fascination, but I want to see if I can find an answer to stuff like that."

"Those might be dangerous questions." Oswald added. "Trying to find them...,one can easily lose their heart to darkness. If you keep chasing ideals like that, you'll fall into a spiral of dark intrigue, and be swallowed by the shadows in your heart. Darkness is a vacuum. It pulls in all who touch it, and they can't escape, no matter how hard they struggle or cling to that which makes them themselves."

He shrugged. "Besides, the main focus should be beating 'em. And it seems like we've done a good job of it."

'Darkness...' I thought. 'Is it truly that destructive?'

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of another gunshot.

"Was that Clayton!?" I gasped.

"It came from the bamboo thicket!" Oswald said. "C'mon. We'll climb down the vines."

We climbed down the vines and ended up in a thicket of trees, where we actually ran into that large figure again.

"You again!" I gasped.

"Aw, not you bozos again!" He cried. "Whaddya think you're doing around here, huh!?"

"We need to be moving! So move it!" Oswald said.

"Wha-!? Pretty tough talk for a half-pint pipsqueak!" He said.

"Size blow. Real original. At least I'm not a flabby fatty." Oswald retorted.

"I'll have ya know that this is all muscle!" He argued.

"Sure. And I'm bright pink under all this black." Oswald shrugged.

"Grrrrr! You annoying little big mouth!" He actually began stomping in a tantrum. "Ya think ya can just make fun of the great Pete and get away with it!?"

"Yeah! I reckon I-...wait...Pete!?" Oswald gasped.

"Wait, do you know him, Oswald?" I asked.

"Oswald!?" Pete yelled.

"Pete was a troublemaker in my home world." Oswald said. "But what the heck are you doing here?"

"Oswald...yeah, now I remember! No wonder you rile me up!" Pete raged. "Let me tell you somethin' Mr. Special, I got somethin' cool now too. It's called the good ol' power of darkness!"

"What did you say!?" Oswald said.

"That's right, bozo! I got darkness on my side now! Hehahahaha!" He laughed.

"...Not really." Clara stated quite bluntly. "His heart isn't really that dark. He's got a bit of darkness, but it feels...lent. Like it's not his own."

"Oh shut yer yap! Whadda you know!?" Pete growled. "Or do ya need some proof!?"

Pete snapped his fingers, and suddenly a group of Soldiers appeared!

"He summoned Heartless!?" I gasped.

"Pete...you really-!" Oswald mumbled.

"Have fun playin' with these guys. I've finally got a good target I saw swingin' through these trees!" He then turned and hightailed it, with the Soldiers blocking our path.

We quickly dispatched of the Soldier's and regrouped.

"I never imagined Pete of all people could do something like this..." Oswald admitted.

"What did he mean when he said he found a good target?" I asked.

"I don't know. But it can't be good." Oswald said. "Let's quickly head back to the camp and check on everyone, then go after Pete."

We hurried back to the camp and checked around, but nobody was there.

"Where is everyone?" I wondered.

"Over there!" Clara pointed.

We rushed over as Sora's group, Tarzan, Jade and the Professor approached us.

"Everybody okay? We heard gun shots." Oswald said.

"We're okay now." Sora said.

"A lot happened, most I don't really think I understand." Jade admitted.

"The important thing is, everything seems to have worked out." The Professor said.

"Sir Oswald, we're going to be moving on now." Goofy said.

"That so? We're gonna stick around a little longer. But if you guys are moving on, go for it." He said.

"Huh?" I knelt down to Oswald. "Is that okay? Couldn't we use their help."

"If they're leaving now, it's selfish to ask them to stay and help us." He whispered. "Besides, it's just Pete. And the three of us have done pretty good so far, right?"

"Right!" Clara hissed instead of whispered.

"Hope you guys do well." Sora said.

"You too." I nodded.

"Hope we meet up again!" Clara said.

"Ah, just remember, be discreet when you leave." Oswald said.

"I know, Sir Oswald." Donald nodded. "We should go to the treehouse."

"Okay. See you around, guys." Sora waved as they headed off.

"We should go too." Oswald said. "Pete seemed to be going into the jungle."

"Is something wrong?" Jade asked.

"Just one more troublemaker to take care of." Oswald said. "Don't worry, leave it to us."

"Well, I've seen that you're more then capable." The Professor said. "Of course we'll leave it to you."

"Tarzan, go." Tarzan seemed to say, before making more ape noises.

"Um...guess that means he's coming with?" I guessed.

"If he wants, I guess." Oswald shrugged. "But let's hurry."

As we were climbing up into the treetops, I felt something hit my face, and I looked up to see clouds rolling in.

"Aw no, it's about to rain." I said.

"Then climb quicker, otherwise you'll slip down." Oswald coaxed.

We made it up as it began raining at a steady rate, and ran over to the gorillas nest, where all the gorillas were backed against the wall by Pete.

"Pete!" Oswald cried as we got battle ready.

"You lot again!? And at the worst time, too!" Pete grumbled.

"Kerchak!" Tarzan said.

That seemed to be the big gorilla at the front, standing up to Pete.

"That must be the leader of the pack." Oswald figured.

"That's right, ya lucky pest!" Pete nodded. "I've been lookin' all over this stinkin' jungle, and I finally found this leader-type. Big and strong too. Perfect candidate for turning into a Heartless!"

"A Heartless!?" We all gasped.

"My new occupation, see?" He emphasised 'occupation'. "Find strong folks in all the worlds, and make 'em into stronger Heartless!"

"Why are you doing something like that, you idiot!?" Oswald shouted.

"I don't gotta tell ya nothin'!" Pete cried.

Just then, Kerchak seemed to lunge at Pete from behind, but Pete actually spun around and decked him in the face!

"Kerchak!" Tarzan cried.

"Think yer' tough, eh?" Pete laughed. "Well, guess what? That toughness is Heartless material now!"

Suddenly, Pete's fist was enveloped in darkness, and he uppercutted Karchak, causing the gorilla to collapse back as his heart flew out!

"No!" Tarzan yelled as the body disintegrated into darkness.

"You...you took his heart!" Oswald said.

"Hahahaha! Got a problem with that?" Pete mocked as he held the heart in its hand. "Y'know, I reckon this'll be a Heartless that'll get you lugs off my back! Two birds with one stone!"

He threw the heart up as it got enveloped in a cloud of darkness, that grew bigger, and bigger, until a Heartless fell out and crashed to the ground. It was a large, bulky Heartless, with the traditional yellow eyes and the emblem over its muscled chest. It had a large pair of curving, blade like red and black horns, and three black metal rings around each of its arms, whilst a purple sash tied itself in a criss-cross pattern over its body, before wrapping itself around its waist. The end of its legs had clawed hands instead of feet, and it walked on its knuckles like a gorilla. I named this Heartless the Barbarioni.

"Hey, I was right! Got a real good one here!" Pete laughed.

"Pete!" I shouted as I charged towards him, but the new Heartless blocked my path.

"Awww, mad, are ya?" Pete taunted. "Welp, looks like I'd better be leaving. Have fun, you two!" He then turned and ran!

"Get back here!" I cried, but the Heartless knocked me back.

"Aaaahhhhhh!" Tarzan charged forward in range and held his spear at the ready, but the Barbarioni suddenly jumped incredibly high before smashing back into the ground and knocking him away.

"Ungh...hah!" I recovered quickly and slashed it across the chest with my whip, but it didn't even seem fazed as it pulled back my arm.

"...Cr-" It punched me with a fist bigger then my torso, sending me crashing back into a tree with such force my vision nearly blacked out as I collapsed to the ground.

"Nox! Heal!" I felt a lot better, but still sore as Clara cast Cure on me.

"Ahhh!" Tarzan swung his spear again, but it blocked with the rings on his arm, before it suddenly swung its head and slashed him with its horns, hitting him back.

"It's strong..." I admnitted as I stood up.

"Then leave it to me." Oswald said as he wielded his wrench. "You two jump in when it flinches."

"Oswald..." I mumbled as the rabbit charged forward.

"Hey!" The Heartless took note of Oswald as he wielded his wrench. "Why don't you try picking on someone less then half your size!?"

The Heartless pulled back a fist and launched a punch, which Oswald met with a swing from his wrench, and they clashed evenly! I could feel the force from all the way at the back of the treetops!

'Geez! I didn't really think about it much before...' I thought. 'But for his size, Oswald is crazy strong!'

Oswald spun his wrench around, causing it to charge up and the light to flash. "C'mon!"

The Heartless took the bait and punched again, but Oswald swung his charged up wrench and overpowered it, knocking the Heartless back. As soon as it did though, the Heartless got back up and beat its chest with its fists furiously, before jumping up into the trees and swinging around on them.

"Now what?" I wondered.

It then suddenly rocketed down towards us, and I had to jump out of the way as it smashed the ground with its fists as it jumped back up into the trees, before once again launching itself towards the ground, forcing us to dodge as it jumped up again.

"You think that's gonna keep working!?" Oswald yelled, as suddenly he jumped up, spinning forward like a wheel.

"Hatchet Rabbit!" Using the spinning momentum, Oswald brought his wrench crashing down on the Barbarioni's skull, making it collapse to the ground.

"Let's go!" I shouted as I whipped it across the face whilst Clara used her pouch like a sock puppet to bite its head, and Tarzan stabbed it in the chest. Head seemed the best route to go.

It didn't like that. It jumped up quickly and beat its chest so furiously all of us were knocked back. It then held up one of its arms, and it suddenly gained a red aura as its muscles expanded to twice its size, stretching the metal rings out.

"That's not good." I stated.

"I got it!" Oswald said. "You guys dodge."

"You can counter that?" I cried.

"Nope!" He said. "But leave it to me!"

"Okay!" Clara flashed him a thumbs up.

The Heartless pulled back its now giant arm and threw a powerful punch which Oswald jumped to face. But instead of clashing directly, Oswald instead tuck and rolled along the top of its arm like a ball until he uncurled and clotheslined it in the face, knocking it onto its back once again.

"Go for it!" Oswald cheered.

"Fire!" Clara shot a more powerful fireball from her puppet that hit the monster square in the face as it tried to get up.

"I'll hit it as hard as I can! Heartfelt Attack! Star Spear!" The spear materialised in front of me as I grabbed it, the lights on it glowing strongly as I threw it forward, and it stabbed right into its chest, pushing it back and pinning it to a tree before the attack vanished and the opponent slumped to the ground.

"Did we get it?" I wondered as we regrouped.

After a second, the Heartless' eyes flashed as it got back up and beat its chest furiously.

"Nox...you never preemptively say something like that." Oswald berated me.

"Ah...right." I admitted.

The Barbarioni fell to its knuckles and leapt forward horns first, we rolled out of the way but it swung its arms and caught all four of us as it flew past, then jumped into the canopy.

"Lesson learned..." I wheezed.

"Alright guys...I'm gonna aim to finish it." Oswald said as he charged up his wrench. "Mind giving me a hand?"

"Yep." "No problem." Me and Clara agreed as Tarzan nodded.

As it crashed into the ground again, Tarzan dashed forward and stabbed one of its legs with its spear, causing it to stumble. In response it once again bulked up its arm as it flared with a red aura.

"Freeze!" Clara shot a powerful Blizzara that froze the monsters entire arm, weighing it down.

"Haaaaaaaa!" I ran forward and punched it in the gut as hard as I could, making it lean over.

"Thank you!" Oswald cried as he jumped. "Take THIS!"

He smashed his wrench right on top of the monsters head, the impact ringing out as the monster then instantly burst into shadows, and I grabbed the shard that fell from inside of it, which looked like it had a pair of red and black horns forming a ring, with two crossed arms over it.

"Kerchak…" Tarzan mumbled as the heart flew away into the sky.

As the battle finished, the rain finally stopped, and the sun began to peek through the clouds.

"We did it." Oswald said.

"But Pete got away." I pointed out.

"That doesn't take away from our victory. We'll just get him next time." Clara said.

"But if we had stopped him, Kerchak wouldn't have..." I trailed off, almost in guilt.

"Tarzan...we're sorry." Oswald said.

Just then, the gorillas all gathered around us, and Tarzan placed his hands to his chest.

"Friends." He said. "Family. Safe."

"Right, if we hadn't stopped it, everybody would have been goners." Clara said.

"...You still have your family, huh?" I said.

"It would seem they have accepted you three."

We looked up as Jade and her father appeared.

"Hey, we said no following." Oswald said.

"I'm sorry, we just got a bad feeling." Jade said.

"It seems something might have happened...but now, they are all grateful and accepting of you." The Professor said.

"Really?" I looked around at the gorillas, who all seemed calm.

Just then, a small light appeared in front of me, and what materialised was some kind of Crest, which looked like an axe-head shaped skull with spike-like leaves curving out from the sides.

"What's this?" I wondered.

"The way that appeared..." Oswald mumbled. "Nox, try putting that on the Guardiam."

"The Guardiarm?" I summoned it, the armour covering my arm. Placing it on the back of my hand did nothing, but when I placed it on the shoulder plate, it suddenly attached like a magnet, and in a flash of light, the Guardiarm changed!

Instead of the metallic look, it now sported a skull and bone design with sharp leaves curving off of the shoulder, elbow and wrists, as the fingers were now bony claws.

"It changed!" I gasped. I summoned the whip, and even it looked different! It now looked like two vines twisting together.

"Even more evidence..." Oswald mumbled as the Guardiarm vanished, and I stared at the Crest now attached to the Guardiarm.

"So this changes the Guardiarm's appearance and power? This thing just keeps getting better and better!" I cried with a fist pump.

"Does that mean you will be leaving as well?" Jade asked.

"Hm...seems so." Oswald said. "Doesn't seem like the Door is here. And we should see if we can chase Pete, too."

"Yeah...we're not just gonna let him turn people into Heartless!" I declared.

"We've decided to stay here, with Tarzan." Jade said. "But we wish you all the best."

"If you ever return to this island...well, I suppose simply yell and we'll find you." The Professor chuckled.

"Friends. Ever." Tarzan said with his hands to his chest, as the gorillas copied the motion.

"Friends, ever." Clara smiled as the three of us copied the motion.

We returned to the Gummi Ship, and just sat down for a moment.

"Pete...what happened to him." Oswald seemed to mumble.

"He's bad news..." Clara said.

I stared down at the Shard I got from Kerchak's Heartless. I decided to Synthesis it in a second...first...

"Anybody hungry?" I asked.

"Wha-?" Oswald gasped.

"We just spent ages running through a jungle. I'm hungry." I admitted.

"I am kinda hungry." Clara admitted.

"I'm fine, no time for-" Oswald's stomach grumbled loudly, and we both looked at him. "...Guess I'm hungry."

"Hm." I pulled over my dessert machine, and tossed in the berries the gorilla gave me, and set it to 'Tart'. "Gimme a second." I switched it on, and it beeped and bounced as it got to work.

"How does that work?" Clara asked curiously.

"Simple. You pop ingredients in, and it makes something sweet." I said. "Had to read a bunch of cookbooks."

"I do wonder why you brought that along." Oswald said.

"It's my best work!" I said, as the machine dinged, and a tart popped out. "Here we go! Jungleberry Tart, coming up!"

"Ah, hold on..." Clara reached inside her pouch and pulled out a knife and some plates to cut the tart up and distribute it among the three of us.

"Mm...this is good!" Oswald said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Mmmpppmmphhh!" Turns out Clara had happily stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, and she clearly enjoyed it, but her eyes were watering from the heat.

"Right, that settles it, I dub thee ship chef." Oswald said as he ate another piece.

"Okay...but all it can make is desserts." I said.

"Fine by me. We'll burn it all off fighting Heartless." Oswald declared. "Speaking of which, we're moving on!"

"Wiph a belly full oph tart!" Clara declared with a full mouth.

"An to find Pete!" I said.

"Let's go!" With renewed vigor, we set off once again.

* * *

 **Info**

 **Leaf Shard: Contains the magic of Cure. Can be released in Synthesis.**

 **Oni Shard: A Shard from the Barbarioni that radiates power. This power can be unleashed with Synthesis.**

 **Barbarioni: A power, brutal Heartless that was created from Kerchak's heart by Pete. It put up a strong fight, but our heroes and Tarzan defeated it, saving the rest of the gorillas.**

 **Wild Claw: A Guardiarm that increases the power of punches and slightly increases whip speed.**

 **Nox's most proficient spells are: Fire, Aero, Stop.**

 **Clara's most proficient spells are: Blizzard, Cure.**

 **Oswald's most proficient spells are: Thunder, Gravity.**

* * *

 **And with that, Deep Jungle has been concluded. And would you look at that, I fixed that whole Kerchak still being alive thing. Aren't you thankful?**

 **Yeah, Pete's gonna be an antagonist here, and he was more capable in this chapter then he was in the whole of KHII. And 358/2. And Re:Coded. And III probably.**

 **Quick thing also, recommendations, because I've been reading KH FF as part of my preparation for III. Go check out 'Mage of Hope' and 'MemoryStormSanctuary' for some OC inserts that DON'T focus on romance, like mine.**

 **And of course, big thank you to pokemonking0924 and ScalchopWarrior for reviewing the last chapter. Pokemonking, you actually nailed my idea of Oswald being a lobster and werewolf, so now I'm gonna have to defy the other ones. And Scalchop...what, you only just figured he's a nerd? And no, you weren't crazy after all.**

 **Thank you all for reading, see you at Olympus!**


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